It was announced on Saturday that the Department of Labor had reached a settlement with Wal-Mart over their violations of child labor laws in three states. The company was ordered to pay $135,540 (.000055 percent of annual revenue) and has agreed to get 15 days' advance notice the next time the government wants to investigate any other "wage and hour" accusations, which include failure to pay minimum wage and overtime as well as violations of child labor laws.
That'll show the bastards! Let's see them recover from this!
John R. Fraser, the government's top wage official under the first President Bush and President Bill Clinton, said the advance-notice provision was unusually expansive.
"Giving the company 15 days' notice of any investigation is very unusual," Mr. Fraser said. "The language appears to go beyond child labor allegations and cover all wage and hour allegations. It appears to put Wal-Mart in a privileged position that to my knowledge no other employer has."
[Assistant labor secretary for employment standards] Ms. Lipnic countered,.
"We usually call employers before we go to investigate," and said there was "nothing uncommon or unprecedented about that."
Ah yes.. Ms. Lipnic is a very good Bush functionary. She has clearly taken Karl Rove's seminar, "Being Evil: It's Really Not That Hard." See how the criticism is that 15 days' notice puts Wal-Mart in a privileged and unprecedented position and she counters by saying they usually call before they go to investigate?
Why it's as if these crazy critics are just yammering about an agreement to do what they already do! What a bunch of yammering crazy critics!
Of course, what she doesn't refute is that an agreement with a company to always give a specific amount of notice is unprecedented. She doesn't refute that because, of course, it's the truth and she's a liar. Speaking the truth burns her throat.
But Cynthia Watson, the division's Southwest regional director, said advance notice would speed compliance. "We are seeking to centralize the points of contact in order to get the people involved to resolve the issue," Ms. Watson said.
And there you have it. "Centralize points of contact." In other words, Wal-Mart broke the law. As part of their punishment, they will be allowed to handle any and all future illegal activity in this area internally and without the messiness of a public investigation. Because really, who would that benefit?
