Appeals court upholds Wal-Mart’s right to fire worker
Posted on Thursday, March 20, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/220248/
The Arkansas Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that a former Wal-Mart employee wasn’t wrongfully terminated after he reported inhumane workplace conditions at Costa Rican suppliers.
The court said that even if his allegations were true, Wal-Mart’s actions did not violate state law.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. had every right under state labor law to fire James Lynn in 2002 for violating the company’s fraternization policy with a co-worker, the court said in Little Rock.
The opinion written by Judge Larry D. Vaught stated that conditions at Wal-Mart’s overseas suppliers did not constitute deceptive trade practices or otherwise violate public policy under Arkansas Code Annotated 4-88-107 (a )(1 ).
Lynn visited Costa Rican suppliers in April 2002. He said he reported to Wal-Mart executives inhumane working conditions he witnessed at the factories.
That same month, a Wal-Mart “loss prevention associate” traveled with Lynn and a female subordinate to Guatemala on a business trip “to watch them.”
In Guatemala, Juan Valverde saw Lynn enter the woman’s room and “heard sounds that he believed were indicative of sexual contact,” according to the opinion.
Later, he saw Lynn “leave her room with messy hair and with his shirt out of his pants.”
Shortly after, Bentonvillebased Wal-Mart fired Lynn for breaking the company’s fraternization policy.
In June 2005, Benton County Circuit Judge David S. Clinger granted summary judgment in Wal-Mart’s favor.
The appeals court agreed with the substance of that judgment, holding Wednesday that Lynn’s three-year global assignment letter did not make him immune to the state’s employment-at-will doctrine, in which an employer has the right to fire an employee at any time.
Neither Lynn’s contract nor his alleged whistle-blowing qualified him for an exemption to that doctrine, Vaught wrote.
Judges Robert J. Gladwin and David “Mac” Glover agreed.
At the appeals court, the case is CA 07-384, James W. Lynn v Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.