Will Work For Free?

The government in Mexico is concerned that Wal-Mart is exploiting local customs to increase the retail giant's profitability.

Wal-Mart is behaving a little badly? I'm shocked!

Thousands of adolescents work as unpaid baggers in Wal-Mart’s Mexican stores.
(Joseph Contreras, Newsweek, July 31, 2007)

Wal-Mart's Global Code of Ethics prohibits work without compensation.
(Click Picture to Read Excerpt)

When a company recruits teens to be volunteers, doesn't that make those teens employees?

"Wal-Mart de Mexico reported net earnings of $1.148 billion in 2006 and $280 million in profits in the second quarter of this year." Federal District Labor Secretary Benito Mirón Lince points out 'Wal-Mart has the capability to pay the minimum wage [of less than $5 a day], and this [unpaid baggers] represents an injustice.'

Wal-Mart explains that the company complies with the International Labor Organization's guidelines that prohibit employing youth under the age of 14. (At least since 2005, when "Wal-Mart agreed to pay the U.S. Labor Department $135,540 in civil money penalties to settle charges of 24 child-labor violations.")

A volunteer is "a person who performs a service willingly and without pay." Wal-Mart provides accident insurance to its volunteer baggers, and pays bonuses for academic achievement. Once you pay a volunteer, he is no longer a volunteer; he is an employee.

The government of Mexico doesn't like it, but is nervous to push Wal-Mart to change. Wal-Mart is the largest private company employer in the country. Mexico simply can't afford those 150,000 workers to be out of work.

I'm usually quiet about my preference to shop elsewhere; but I consider this too outrageous to ignore.

Wal-Mart squeezes the labor force in the name of low prices. Squeezing Lower Prices

Mexico Labor Report 2006

Tags: [Wal-Mart] [Walmart de Mexico]
[I.L.O.] [Newsweek] [Joseph Contreras]