The Olds Wal-Mart is facing another human rights complaint after an employee who spoke to the media was fired.
The Olds Wal-Mart is facing another human rights complaint after an employee who spoke to the media was fired.
Although the corporation denies it, Diane Warren believes she was fired because she provided comments to the Olds Albertan for a story about a woman who wanted to breastfeed her daughter in a fitting room at the store but was told by a store supervisor to use a washroom.
"That was so wrong. She could have said, in a very nice manner, we have a place for nursing, or just let her go ahead and nurse," Warren told the Albertan earlier this month.
On Aug. 18, five days after the breastfeeding story was published in the newspaper, Warren was told she no longer had a job with the company.
She said management told her the reason she was being terminated was because she wasn’t grasping what she needed to know for a customer service position and because of concerns for her health.
Warren said she has back problems due to scoliosis and also suffers from rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn's disease and when she was hired at Wal-Mart in mid-July, she had asked to only work a maximum of four to five hours a day for four days a week to keep from aggravating her health issues.
The store’s management, she said, told her that was no problem.
She said she started working as a cashier and bagging groceries did hurt her lower back.
So, management transferred her to customer service and Warren said she struggled in that position as well.
"To my shock, I could not believe the amount of things that you have to know and learn when you’re there," she said, adding management put her on a "gruelling" schedule where she was sometimes working up to nine hours a day, four days in a row.
On two occasions, Warren said she asked to go home due to pain.
But she said she does not believe her health problems were behind her termination.
"To me, they were using my health problems as an excuse to let me go. But in actuality, I think it was what was said in the paper. I think honestly that they could have found something for me and I think they could have given me a chance at the express line."
The store’s management, Warren added, never warned her about her job performance or their concerns about her health prior to her firing and they rejected her suggestion that she could be put at another, less-demanding position such as the express checkout line.
Alex Roberton, Wal-Mart Canada’s corporate affairs and social media director, said Warren was not fired for speaking to the media but, for privacy reasons, would not offer any further information on why she was let go.
He said in general, Wal-Mart employees can speak to the media as long as they don’t offer opinions on behalf of the company.
Roberton also said whether or not an employee would receive a warning prior to being fired would depend on the situation.
A manager at the store declined to comment on the matter.
Warren said she is filing a complaint with the Alberta Human Rights Commission based on the grounds she was wrongfully terminated and now has to find another job since she is in a "challenging" financial situation due to her health and because she is in the process of divorcing her husband.
Although she said she wants her job at Wal-Mart back because of the income and the chance to socialize, she added if she were taken back, she would be too scared of making a mistake that would give the store cause to fire her again.
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