About The Case

Class Action Wal-Mart Stores, Inc and Wal-Mart Stores Inc, Neighborhood Markets

Plaintiffs are members of a proposed class of current, former and future employees of Wal-Mart. During the course of their employment at Wal-Mart, Plaintiffs and the putative class sustained on-the-job injuries. As a result of their on-the-job injuries, Plaintiffs sought help under applicable Oklahoma workers’ compensation laws, initiating proceedings for benefits under the Act. Plaintiffs initially delayed seeking assistance from an attorney because they knew that hiring an attorney and/or filing a workers’ compensation claim would be fatal to their Wal-Mart employment. However, after not receiving benefits that were due, Plaintiffs were compelled to file a claim under the Act. Once filed, Defendants discriminated against them, to wit, Plaintiffs’ pay rate was reduced; their scheduled weekly hours were reduced; their titles, positions and duties were reduced; and/or they were given less desirable jobs. These changes in working conditions were designed to, and did in fact, create an intolerable, hostile and retaliatory working environment intended to force Plaintiffs to resign. If Defendants’ injured employees nevertheless endured the intolerable working conditions visited upon them by Defendants, Defendant then either fired them outright for pre-textual reasons or required Plaintiffs to terminate their employment with Wal-Mart as a condition of settling Plaintiffs’ workers compensation claims.

Defendants’ employees know that if they file a claim under the Act, it will inevitably cost them their job. It is Defendants’ unwritten policy that “good” employees do not file workers compensation claims. In fact, in Defendant’s exit interview forms, Defendants equate filing a workers’ compensation claim to lying on an employment application or violating sexual harassment policies.

At a minimum, Defendants’ wrongful conduct deters workers compensation claims and helps Defendants fulfill their advertising slogan of “always low prices, always.” Not only does Wal-Mart “always” have low prices, but Defendants “always” put employees in dangerous situations against Defendants’ own safety regulations; Defendants “always” know that employees will get injured in this unsafe work environment; Defendants “always” discriminate against employees once this inevitable injury occurs; and, finally, Defendants have “always” gotten away with these brazen violations of Oklahoma law. Unfortunately, this quandary of “always low prices, always” forces Defendants’ employees to make an illegal choice: forego workers’ compensation benefits entitled by Oklahoma law or lose their jobs. CONTACT US

This site has no affiliation with Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., or any of its affiliates. This site is maintained by Plaintiffs’ counsel in the lawsuit Mathes, et al. v. Wal-Mart, et al. to answer questions of putative class members concerning alleged workers’ compensation discrimination.