Walmart eliminates Greeters people. Disabled workers feel targeted: NPR

If you ask John Combs what is his biggest concern, he will say, "How am I going to feed Red?"

Red is actually white. He is a labradoodle rescuer, just big enough for Combs to caress himself when he reaches out over the armrest of his wheelchair. Combs, 42, has cerebral palsy. He has trouble speaking. But it's not hard to say that most Americans have heard the line at least once: "Welcome to Walmart!"

Combs occupies one of Walmart's most prominent jobs: he is a "people watcher" at a Vancouver store in Wash. But, he was told, his job will disappear on April 25. And he is not alone. According to Walmart, greeters are being cut in about 1,000 stores across the country.

NPR found that Walmart was changing the employment requirements for front desk attendants in a manner that appears to disproportionately affect workers with disabilities. Disabled Greeters in five states told NPR that they expect to lose their jobs after April 25th or 26th.

Walmart is the largest private employer in the United States and has a large workforce of disabled workers. And the job of greeter has been particularly attractive because it is not physically exhausting and is easy to learn.

But Walmart has eliminated the greeters and replaced them with "guest hosts", who have more extensive responsibilities, such as taking care of security or helping customers. The change will come into effect at the end of April. This is the latest wave of a policy launched by Walmart in 2016. It has already touched about 1,000 stores.

According to interviews with workers and documents reviewed by NPR, to gain access to these new reception desks, workers must be able to lift 25 kg, clean spills, pick baskets and stand for long periods of time. periods, among other things, tasks that can be difficult to solve. impossible for people with disabilities. The workers say that they were told that they had to be able to climb the ladder to gain access to some of the other jobs in the store.

"I do not want to lose this job, it's a real job I do," Combs said, letting out a deep sigh. Four days a week, he gets up at 6 am to get to work at 10 am In October, his family hosted a party to mark his two-year anniversary at Walmart – even his sick mother celebrated.

Counting the combs, five employees with disabilities at Walmart who fear losing their job in April spoke to NPR, either directly or through a family member. They are in Florida, Pennsylvania, Washington, Alabama and Maryland. Workers also said the changes affected their older or disabled colleagues.

In response to the NPR survey, Walmart acknowledged the effect on disabled workers. Spokesman Kory Lundberg said on Monday that the company would now give greeters with disabilities beyond April 25 more time to find new housing:

"We recognize that our associates with a physical disability face a unique situation, and in this spirit we will extend the current 60-day transition period for associates with a disability while exploring the circumstances and potential adaptations. for each individual. " This allows associates to continue to be employed in the store as important members of the team while seeking an acceptable and personalized solution for all participants. "

NPR has also heard of several complaints against Walmart to the Commission for Equal Opportunities in Employment, as well as lawsuits – all from people with disabilities who had previously lost their jobs after a change of job. request.

Walmart allegedly filed a statement in two of the EEOC cases but did not provide a copy to NPR at the time of publication. The company has not yet responded to the allegations contained in the complaint.

An EEOC claim was filed in October by two Michigan cousins, who use a wheelchair and say they have lost their most hospitable job last year. Another complaint was filed in Wisconsin, where a former secretary said that last year she was forced into a lower paying and physically demanding position. A third claim is pending in Texas, where a person with cerebral palsy says that she is on extended leave since her job changed mid-2017. Another member, who lost his job in Utah in 2016, sued Walmart in January.

"We had heard of isolated incidents in the past, maybe two over the past three years, but starting Monday we had an influx of calls," said Cheryl Bates-Harris , Senior Disability Advocate at the National Disability Rights Network. It was February 18, when the story of a greeter in Pennsylvania became viral on Facebook.

On Friday, at least a dozen Walmart workers in seven US states had asked for help from local groups, Bates-Harris said. They had all been told that their job descriptions had changed recently or in the past.

None of the workers, their legal guardians or their lawyers saw any paperwork explaining the policy or its schedule, they told NPR.

Walmart had largely explained his plan to eliminate greeters in an article published in 2016, titled "Offering More to Customers at the Door". Walmart said it expects more than 80% of those affected can find new positions. (Note: Walmart is one of NPR's financial backers.)

"It was very stressful," said 32-year-old Mitchell, who said his goalkeeper's job was eliminated in Alabama. He has been doing the job for four years. "It gives me a place to go every day, where I'm not at home, I'm not one of those wheelchair users who want social security, I'm able to work, I want to work; I want to be in society. "

NPR does not share Mitchell's last name because of his fear of retaliation from management. Similarly, two other workers and their guardians spoke to NPR anonymously for fear of antagonizing local leaders.

The most widely shared story has been told in Pennsylvania, where Adam Catlin, a Walmart Greeter with cerebral palsy, is at risk of losing his job after 10 years. Nearly 4,000 comments flocked to his mother's message on Facebook, which asks people to call the Walmart business hotline to advocate for Catlin's job.

"They said that the labor code was going to change and that I had to be able to get up and lift 25 pounds," Catlin, 30, told NPR last week. "I asked them for suggestions and the manager said that he did not know what to say to me."

The legal implications are complex and highly dependent on the response of each store to each relevant host.

The Americans with Disabilities Act does not prevent companies from changing their job descriptions and the functions they are supposed to do as they see fit, if they see fit for their business goals.

Retailers are under a lot of pressure to cut costs, and Walmart in particular has fought to dominate one of its major rivals, Amazon. During the last quarter, a significant portion of Walmart's profits came from its online grocery business. And the chain relies on the staff located at the front of its stores to help customers load their luggage into their cars.

"An employer can change the nature of the job according to his needs, but you still have to help a disabled person," said Jonathan Mook, a labor lawyer at DiMuroGinsberg, an ADA specialist.

He added that an employer could offer the displaced worker an "equivalent" job, find ways to adapt the requirements to the worker, or even to his grandfather, among the long-term employees. But everything is at the discretion of the company.

"What [the ADA] asks for an interactive process, "said Mook," with a type of dialogue with the disabled person, to see if anything could be done to help or allow that person to perform the newly designed or newly configured work. "

WADA calls on companies to provide "reasonable accommodation" to workers with disabilities who face changing requirements, provided that the worker can perform the "core functions" of the job. And the question of whether stores meet this standard will have to be answered individually.

In the case of Combs in Washington, her sister Rachel Wasser said the store offered no new jobs or severance pay. As for Catlin, a native of Pennsylvania, Walmart met him with his family, but has not yet made a resolution.

In the lawsuit filed in Utah, former president Manase Yokwe asserted that in mid-2016, the greeters had been asked to raise their hands if they could not work upright – and those who did it were then asked to consider redundancy agreements. Yokwe's complaint also alleges that at least two other disabled people have not found new jobs at the store.

In Michigan, cousins ​​John and Joe Wirth, who use a wheelchair and filed a lawsuit against the EEOC against Walmart, said their local manager did not help them find a new job at the store. when their Greeter posts had been phased out.

They also claim to have been pressured to sign papers indicating that they were leaving voluntarily and receiving their last salary. In the notice of separation sent to NPR by Joe Wirth, one inscription indicates that he was leaving for "career opportunities".

The Wirths also provided a statement from their former colleague, a third disabled person, who also lost his job last April after 12 years at the store.

"I do not think they're really invested in greeters, and that's a shame," said 36-year-old John Wirth. On his last day at Walmart in April, he stated that he had taken his two usual buses to discover that his badge did not work. He was told to put on his yellow vest, his badge and his five-year-old badge. "They may have said good luck in everything you decide to do," he said. "And it's after almost 12 years."

Walmart has had a complicated history as an employer of people with disabilities. It has launched a Diversity and Inclusion initiative since 2003 and its leaders are dedicated to the inclusion of people with disabilities. In a report published in 2017, he said he had obtained the highest score of "Disability Equality Index" for two consecutive years. The index is evaluated by a group of disability rights advocates and business leaders. Walmart also said it was named "Best Place of Work by DCI", in recognition of company-wide initiatives to advance the inclusion of people with disabilities.

But the company was also faced with numerous lawsuits and obtained in 2001 a $ 6.8 million national consent decree from the EEOC, which resolved 13 disability-related disability-related cases . She had asked job seekers to complete a "pre-employment questionnaire". In 2005, Walmart sparked an outcry over a leaked internal memo that proposed lowering health costs, including requiring all jobs to include physical activity.

Workers and their families feel devastated by the latest job cuts. Fred Wirth – Joe's father – said his son felt stabbed in the back after six years at Walmart. "I'll tell you that our view is that we think it's only a systematic way to get rid of all people with disabilities," said Fred Wirth. "Whether it's right, wrong or indifferent, that's how we saw it."

NPR researcher Will Chase contributed to this report.