need not apply.

http://money.cnn.com/2005/10/26/news/fortune500/walmart.reut/index.htm?cnn=yes

Quote :

"Wal-Mart memo: Unhealthy need not apply Report: Document sent to retailer's board by VP seeks ways to cut health care, benefit costs. NEW YORK (Reuters) - An internal memo sent to the Wal-Mart Stores Inc. board proposes numerous ways to hold down health care and benefits costs with less harm to the retailer's reputation, including hiring more part-time workers and discouraging unhealthy people from seeking jobs, the New York Times said Wednesday. The paper said the draft memo to Wal-Mart's board was obtained from Wal-Mart Watch, a pressure group allied with labor unions that says Wal-Mart's pay and benefits are too low. The paper said in the memorandum Susan Chambers, Wal-Mart's executive vice president for benefits, also recommends reducing 401(k) pension contributions and wooing younger, and presumably healthier, workers by offering education benefits. The memo is quoted as expressing concern that workers with seven years' seniority earn more than workers with one year's seniority, but are no more productive, said the paper, which posted the memo on its Web site To discourage unhealthy job applicants, the paper said, Chambers suggests Wal-Mart arrange for "all jobs to include some physical activity (e.g., all cashiers do some cart-gathering)," The memo also proposed that employees pay more for their spouses' health insurance, called for cutting the company's 401(k) contributions to 3 percent of wages from 4 percent and for cutting company-paid life insurance policies. The memo acknowledged that Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, had to walk a fine line in restraining benefits because critics attacked it for being stingy on wages and health coverage. Chambers in the memo acknowledged 46 percent of the children of Wal-Mart's 1.33 million United States employees were uninsured or on Medicaid. Wal-Mart executives said the memo was part of an effort to rein in benefit costs, which have soared by 15 percent a year on average since 2002. Like much of corporate America, Wal-Mart has been squeezed by soaring health costs, the paper said. The proposed plan, if approved, would save the company more than $1 billion a year by 2011, the paper said. Wal-Mart sets holiday discount program ... click here for more In an interview, Ms. Chambers said she was focusing not on cutting costs, but on serving employees better by giving them more choices on their benefits. Chambers also said that she made her recommendations after surveying employees about how they felt about the benefits plan. One proposal would reduce the amount of time, from two years to one, that part-time employees would have to wait before qualifying for health insurance. Another would put health clinics in stores, in part to reduce expensive employee visits to emergency rooms. Wal-Mart's benefit costs jumped to $4.2 billion last year, from $2.8 billion three years earlier. Last year Wal-Mart earned $10.5 billion on sales of $285 billion. Under fire because less than 45 percent of its workers receive company health insurance, Wal-Mart announced a new plan Monday that seeks to increase participation by allowing some employees to pay just $11 a month in premiums."

10/26/2005 3:36:10 PM

so I tucked my brain tumor under my hat
and I went in to ask him why

10/26/2005 3:36:54 PM

^ BEAT ME TO IT

10/26/2005 3:39:53 PM

somebody ought to crack down on all the fatties these days

10/26/2005 3:41:43 PM

Wal-Mart blows, and I'm saying this from personal experience (worked there for 3 years this nov.).

10/26/2005 3:41:57 PM

The people that greet you at the door always look close to death.

10/26/2005 3:42:48 PM

A lawsuit's a'brewin'!

10/26/2005 3:50:52 PM

as long as I can keep getting my cheap shit

10/26/2005 7:01:19 PM

Quote :

"so I tucked my brain tumor under my hat and I went in to ask him why"

hahahahaahahahahaha

that cracked me up

10/26/2005 7:02:48 PM

^^ Ditto!

10/26/2005 7:49:04 PM

I don't see a problem with requiring people who work in a discount store to have the capability to do manual labor.

However, they aren't going to be able to run anymore ads that make them look like the good neighborhood store that hires senior citizens in need.

Unless all this is to prevent only fatties from applying.

10/26/2005 8:18:53 PM

I'd imagine that the oldies-but-goldies rank up there with the fatties in terms of health care costs.

10/26/2005 8:42:56 PM

God forbid a company thinks about cutting costs.

P.S. I don't shop at Walmart. It's not cheaper and it's worse quality.

10/26/2005 8:51:45 PM

I shop there more now that they have the self checkout thingys.

Its not so bad when you dont have to wait in line.

[Edited on October 26, 2005 at 8:58 PM. Reason : ]

10/26/2005 8:58:04 PM

Again, they simply don't have the best quality/price ratio. And often they don't even have the best price. Most of clothing my 10 month son wears is from Baby Gap. Yes, I know what you may think. The thing is we shop there cuz it's about the cheapest store if you pay any attention to sales and do any planning and the quality is by the order of magnitude better.

10/27/2005 12:48:32 AM

Quote :

"A lawsuit's a'brewin'!"

oh, HELL yeah they got a lawsuit a comin. lets see, they got implicit age discrimination and explicit health discrimination... and that definitely applies to recruiting and advertisement of jobs...

10/27/2005 12:56:12 AM

^ You have a son

10/27/2005 12:56:43 AM

Man, I'm 28. How long would you have had me wait?

10/27/2005 12:57:56 AM

yet and all that i still love wal-mart...

10/27/2005 1:51:43 AM

what's wrong with wal-mart deciding not to hire certain people? i dont see what the big deal is here.

10/27/2005 2:43:49 AM

me either, i wouldnt want a fattie old, close to death person greeting my customers....or is it just a hallaween thing walmart is doing?

10/27/2005 2:54:58 AM

Quote :

"How long would you have had me wait?"

Well, just speaking for me...until long after you and your spouse are safely beyond child-bearing capability.

Can't disagree about the price/quality thing, though. I shop at Wal-Mart, yes, but only because it's the only store within a ten mile radius of my home that sells, well, anything. If there were a mom-and-pop place I could get my shit, I would, but frankly this particular social cause is not worth my starving to death.

10/27/2005 4:18:15 AM

Now the employees can go into the clothing dept. and buy the "No Fat Chicks" shirt and wear it as a uniform.

10/27/2005 7:35:29 AM

Expect to see more of this in the future. This is a symptom, not the cause. The cost of health insurance has increased by 11.2% in 2004, 13.9% in 2003, and has risen by double digits for 4 years (at about 5 times the rate of inflation). Nice to see that no one tends to focus on this problem.

[Edited on October 27, 2005 at 8:24 AM. Reason : -]

10/27/2005 8:23:02 AM