Can my husband get fired from WalMart (of all places) for evacuating from Hurricane Gustav?
My husband is an overnight stocker for Walmart and all local emergency depts are telling our area to leave early, don’t wait for the mandatory evacuation. I thought that was common sense. Well, he called his job to tell them he was evacuating with his family and they thought he was absurd and sort of threatened him. I told him tomorrow he is telling them he’s GONE because his family’s safety is more important than keeping Walmart’s doors open. Can he get fired?
Tagged with: common sense • doors • job • mandatory evacuation • walmart
Filed under: Hurricane Questions
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
Umm This is in Atlanta and there is no evacuation order for Atlanta. GA is an employment at will state as are most other southern states. That means anyone can be fired anytime for any reason or for no reason. However people fired for no real cause can often get unemployment compensation and if evacuation is advised he may well be able to do that, He can also appeal any firing to WalMart headquarters since he will be following the directions of public safety officials. If a hurricane is heading for you especially if you are in an area where levees etc are compromised getting out is good sense.
yes. wal-mart is not the most employee friendly company in the US. in order to keep his job, he would have to put in for vacation or a leave of absents.
unfortunately yes they can but you can fight it in court because your family is more important and wally-world can not override local emergency agency’s rules of when and who should evacuate. I have seen things like this before at companies like Walmart and other big corporations who think keeping their doors open is more important than saving lives. Sooner or later America will open its eyes and tell these people no more.
um, you need to report that kind of behavior, nothing should stand in the way of your family’s safety. Walmart has absolutely no right firing someone for wanting to evacuate from a severe and dangerous situation. Good luck to you and your family, god bless!
I would contact the local media and let them know about it. Walmart will want to avoid any more bad PR and will probably make a show of urging its employees to evacuate.
You can find links to your local newspapers and TV stations on http://www.USAMediaGuide.com. It also has a special section of Hurricane Gustav links for finding coverage of the storm.
well, do you live in New Orleans or Tampa? Or Houston? If you live in New Orleans, it’s absurd of them to think he should be there and I understand the stores are closed. If you live in an area where the store is going to be open, you likely don’t live in an area that has mandatory evacuations. If you live in Texas, you can get fired by any employer without any explanation. It’s the law. I don’t know what the law is in Louisiana, but the place is totally corrupt, so who knows?
quite possibly…walmart seems like it is the last thing to close…whether it be they are greedy or they want to stay open because of keeping merchandise in for customers….( shrugs you decide) however ,your husband can also fight it by calling the home office and see what they say,as well as the bosses above your store manager… i do remember when hurricane katrina tore through New Orleans last time walmart transferred some of the employees to other stores out of state temporarily…we had a few of them in our state.if there is still a problem after going through the chain of command,as well as the home office.then i would consider your local tv station, or the department of labor,below is a link..he could possibly risk losing your job doing this ..but on the other hand he may not..it just depends on how far he is willing to go..but in any case..family comes first….i would truly believe that if were sam walton were alive today …he would have been more concerned about getting his employees out of harms way..then trying to make a few dollars
he can just take personal emergency leave. unless hes been there for less than 6 months. those people get no perks at all. more than 6 months though, they should be able to work something out with him. if they dont close though, they might have to replace him while hes gone. they have the right to do that. if your area is evacuating, wouldnt everyone else who lives/works in that area be leaving too???