Why Wal-Mart Sucks ($31M discrimination judgment in NH)

[confettiflyer]

http://consumerist.com/2016/01/29/w...retaliating-against-pharmacist-whistleblower/

"A federal jury in New Hampshire has slapped the nation’s largest retailer with more than $31 million in penalties for unlawful retaliation and gender bias against a former pharmacist who blew the whistle on safety concerns involving her co-workers."

And even beter...

"In Sept. 2012, her doctor advised she take a two-week medical leave from the store. When she returned, she learned that a pharmacy technician had not only accessed her private health information, but had then told others at the pharmacy about the plaintiff’s use of prescription sleep meds."


Other links:

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/east/2016/01/29/396865.htm

"McPadden said she was fired in retaliation for her raising concerns that customers at the Wal-Mart store in Seabrook, New Hampshire, where she worked were getting prescriptions filled improperly because of inadequate staff training."

http://www.nhd.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/opinions/15/15NH205.pdf

This is the summary judgment denial from November 2015. This document has every single detail you'd want to read about the trial, including the names of the managers, the technician (defendant) that allegedly violated HIPAA, and snippets of the internal emails that went back and forth up and down the chain of command about lost pharmacy keys and other things.

http://www.plainsite.org/dockets/2i...ct-court/mcpadden-v-walmart-stores-inc-et-al/

Here are all the court entries, you'll need a PACER account to access each filing. Transcripts not available until redactions are complete.

Enjoy! And discuss, if so inclined.

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[PharmDBro2017]

Good lord. Read about this yesterday and I was a little surprised at the $30 million in penalties, but they did not include the HIPAA violation in the post that I skimmed through... very interesting.

 

[WVUPharm2007]

Damn. I wish someone would discriminate against me and violate my HIPAA rights.

 

[ldiot]

She misfilled prescriptions, gets fired, and Walmart has to pay up for retaliation and gender bias? Makes no sense to me. Meanwhile other pharmacy chains are having pharmacists work off the clock and the lawsuits are dropped?

The general public just hates Walmart if you ask me.

 

[confettiflyer]

She misfilled prescriptions, gets fired, and Walmart has to pay up for retaliation and gender bias? Makes no sense to me. Meanwhile other pharmacy chains are having pharmacists work off the clock and the lawsuits are dropped?

The general public just hates Walmart if you ask me.

I don't think you even read the article, much less the court order.

Are you even in the right thread?

 

[ldiot]

I don't think you even read the article, much less the court order.

Are you even in the right thread?

Honestly I didn't even open the article. I just read this statement:

"McPadden said she was fired in retaliation for her raising concerns that customers at the Wal-Mart store in Seabrook, New Hampshire, where she worked were getting prescriptions filled improperly"

Is the pharmacy manager not responsible for the pharmacy, the prescriptions that she personally fills, and the training of her staff? Obviously it was a challenge store which I understand but still when a script goes out the door it has to be correct it's your license on the line and a person's health at stake...

 

[BMBiology]

She got some balls. Raised patient safety issues (can be done at any retail) with the regional DM. Attack the PIC. Document. Document. Document.

The regional DM screwed up and fired her after she lost the pharmacy key. He wanted to get rid of a trouble maker. If he had waited for another write up, it would not have been seen as a retaliation.

I could have made a lot of money when I was an intern. My retail was giving out those transfer coupons to anybody and everybody. Of course you can't give them out to patients on government sponsored plans. But there is no way for you to know by just looking at the insurance card since private insurances managed those plans. I raised this issue with the PIC but if I had also filed a medicare kickback complaint, I would have been eligible for a percentage of the fine. Probably in the millions.

 

[BMBiology]

Here's an example of what I am talking about:

"A report from a Kmart pharmacist who was the whistleblower in this case led to a 2013 lawsuit. Kmart paid $1.4 million to settle the suit, and the whistleblower will receive $248,500 of the total. He no longer works for Kmart"

This guy worked at Kmart and made almost $250,000. I am guessing it is tax free? If you had worked at CVS or Walgreens, he would have made millions!

http://consumerist.com/2015/09/01/k...al-coupon-acceptance-prescription-incentives/

 

[confettiflyer]

She got some balls. Raised patient safety issues (can be done at any retail) with the regional DM. Attack the PIC. Document. Document. Document.

The regional DM screwed up and fired her after she lost the pharmacy key. He wanted to get rid of a trouble maker. If he had waited for another write up, it would not have been seen as a retaliation.

I could have made a lot of money when I was an intern. My retail was giving out those transfer coupons to anybody and everybody. Of course you can't give them out to patients on government sponsored plans. But there is no way for you to know by just looking at the insurance card since private insurances managed those plans. I raised this issue with the PIC but if I had also filed a medicare kickback complaint, I would have been eligible for a percentage of the fine. Probably in the millions.

What's worse is the DM admittedly didn't even know how to discipline someone for a lost key, and had to reach out to other colleagues to find out what to do. THEN he went above and beyond those recommendations and got her terminated. The other instances of lost keys didn't result in termination...and they were male.

And he did it via email.

::law & order gavel sound::

::chuh-ching!:: $$$$$$$$$

If you're going to do something shady like that...meet at a bar, talk on the phone...I dunno, send smoke signals. Emails are forever, and subject to discovery. Duh.

 

[ldiot]

What's worse is the DM admittedly didn't even know how to discipline someone for a lost key, and had to reach out to other colleagues to find out what to do. THEN he went above and beyond those recommendations and got her terminated. The other instances of lost keys didn't result in termination...and they were male.

And he did it via email.

::law & order gavel sound::

::chuh-ching!:: $$$$$$$$$

If you're going to do something shady like that...meet at a bar, talk on the phone...I dunno, send smoke signals. Emails are forever, and subject to discovery. Duh.

The problem is this kind of stuff happens every single day, the DMs are just smart enough in most cases to write up the pharmacist for stupid stuff over a period of a couple of months before firing them. That being said, does the DM even need a reason to fire someone? Aren't most retail jobs considered "at will" employment anyways?

I do agree that the DM couldn't have handled this any worse

 

[Sine Cura]

The ability of an employer to terminate is constrained by the risk of wrongful termination and/or discrimination claims, as this case shows.

 

[confettiflyer]

The problem is this kind of stuff happens every single day, the DMs are just smart enough in most cases to write up the pharmacist for stupid stuff over a period of a couple of months before firing them. That being said, does the DM even need a reason to fire someone? Aren't most retail jobs considered "at will" employment anyways?

I do agree that the DM couldn't have handled this any worse

Yeah at will, but Sine Cura beat me to the punch....

The ability of an employer to terminate is constrained by the risk of wrongful termination and/or discrimination claims, as this case shows.

Say you're the DM and you want to fire someone because you just don't like them (that's allowed, technically speaking, in at will employment), what will come back to bite you in the arse is if the employee is terminated in such a way that it can be construed as discrimination under federal law. The specific classes are race, color, religion or creed, national origin or ancestry, sex, age, physical or mental disability, veteran status, genetic information, and citizenship.

So if you fire Employee A because you don't like them, and they're the only female in an all-male office, you might as well just write a blank check and attach it to the pink slip. If you fire Employee B because you don't like them, and they've been taking quite a bit of FMLA-protected leave for PTSD immediately before their termination, you're probably a jerk and will get hung out to dry by a jury.

In each hypothetical case, it's incumbent upon an employer to make the termination defensible....that is, you really need to prove that this person deserved to be terminated or else perception becomes reality, and it'll appear as though you're terminating the person in a retaliatory fashion that violates federal law. That's why almost every employer with deep pockets has a very specific process that's adhered to (verbal warnings, written warnings, coachings, etc...)

It came out in this case in discovery that the DM and the other individuals in this case were apparently struggling with the process, or not following it, or maybe there was no process.

Conversely, the employee needs to amass evidence to make their claim legitimate. There's no cut and dry case, these get parsed out in the adversarial proceedings of open court, and will usually result in a settlement. Sometimes, at the last minute (see: Brazill v. California Northstate School of Pharmacy, age discrimination lawsuit by a faculty member...in which an SDN thread was entered in as evidence).

 

[297point1]

Isn't this why the chains "stop scheduling people for shifts" instead of flat-out terminating them?

While I'm not in retail and haven't seen it firsthand, I've read about this practice enough (here and elsewhere) for me to believe it's a real thing.

 

[Gombrich12]

"Isn't this why the chains "stop scheduling people for shifts" instead of flat-out terminating them?"

Old floaters never get fired, they just sort of fade away. What I found interesting is how the company exposed itself to liability due to discovered disparate discipline practices. This goes on in every workplace I've been at. Favored employee A is 5 minutes late once a week and hated employee B is 5 minutes late once and written up.