Last Thursday, I pointed out that Wal-Mart's treatment of Deborah Shank, a mother of three and ex-worker there who had been injured in a car accident and found herself being shaken down by the company for hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical fees that had been paid by Wal-Mart's health insurance plan -- could be construed as being a bit, ahem, overzealous. (If by "overzealous" you mean "unbelievably callous".)
Well, someone in Wally World must read this blog, because late yesterday Wal-Mart announced that they are backing off:
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is dropping a controversial effort to collect over $400,000 in health care reimbursement from a former employee who is confined to a southeast Missouri nursing home since she suffered brain damage in a traffic accident.
The world's largest retailer said Tuesday in a letter to the family of Deborah Shank it will not seek to collect money the Shanks won in an injury lawsuit against a trucking company for the accident.
Pat Curran, executive vice president for human resources at Wal-Mart Stores U.S., wrote that Shank's extraordinary situation had made the company re-examine its stance.
Deborah's husband Jim Shank welcomed the news. Family lawyer Maurice Graham of St. Louis said Wal-Mart deserves credit for doing the right thing.
"It's a good day for the Shank family," Jim Shank said in a statement.
Now the only question is why these tactics are legal in the first place. The Shanks got justice in this case -- but that's because their situation got the attention of the world, and the negative PR convinced Wal-Mart to back off. How many other people are there in the same situation whose cases fly under the radar? How often do you think the corporations in those cases back off voluntarily?
Comments (2)
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The story is one reason why we need to let Walmart
and other big corporations know that people are
watching.
Posted by Bob Hayes on April 21, 2008 at 11:39 AM
Posted on April 21, 2008 at 11:39 AM
This is just one of MANY reasons Wal Mart and others like them (Target,JCPennys,Sears ect)need union involvment to show these multi billion dollar companies they are NOT above the law and can not get away with anything they please. I hope I live to see the day when Wal Mart and others are unionized for the greater good of their employees................WE ARE WATCHING AND TALKING!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by Chris Barron on April 21, 2008 at 2:03 PM
Posted on April 21, 2008 at 2:03 PM