Wal-Mart hauled to court by sweatshop workers

14 Sep '05

3 min read

Wal-Mart workers on four continents sued the giant retailer today in California Superior Court in Los Angeles.

They maintain that Wal-Mart failed to meet its contractual duty to ensure that its suppliers pay basic wages due; forced them to work excessive hours seven days a week with no time off for holidays; obstructed their attempts to form a union; and, made false and misleading statements to the American public about the company's labor and human rights practices.

The workers are represented by Terry Collingsworth, executive director of the Washington, DC-based International Labor Rights Fund, and Los Angeles area co-counsels Dan Stormer of Hadsell and Stormer, and Paul Hoffman of Schonbrun, DeSimone, Seplow, Harris & Hoffman.

This legal team recently represented Burmese plaintiffs who sued Los Angeles-based Unocal Corporation for using forced labor during the construction of a natural gas pipeline in Burma.

The suit was settled earlier this year when the Burmese plaintiffs accepted a cash offer from the company that Business Week estimated to be in the vicinity of $30 million.

Wal-Mart maintains a Supplier Standards Agreement with its foreign suppliers that incorporates adherence to its corporate code of conduct as a direct condition of supplying products to Wal-Mart.

By incorporating the code of conduct into the supply agreement, it creates a contractual obligation enforceable by the workers supplying to Wal-Mart, who are the intended beneficiaries of the code's worker rights provisions.

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