Scott Addresses NRF
Outgoing Wal-Mart CEO Urges Cooperation
Last updated Monday, January 12, 2009 3:42 PM CST in Business
By Lana F. Flowers
THE MORNING NEWS
SPRINGDALE -- Retailers are closer to America's working men and women than other businesses, and have a responsibility to work with government and other organizations to solve important issues, Lee Scott said.
The retiring Wal-Mart Stores Inc. president and chief executive officer spoke Monday to the National Retail Federation convention in New York City.
He referred to a "national embarrassment of 47 million" Americans who do not have health insurance and asked when the country would make health care affordable for them.
An anti-Wal-Mart group, Wake Up Wal-Mart, contended Wal-Mart could do something about the health care crisis by making sure more of its own workers have insurance.
As of late 2005, Wal-Mart failed to provide health care to more than 775,000 of its workers, according to a study by Wake Up Wal-Mart. The organization is a venture of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union.
Wal-Mart provides health insurance to full-time and part-time employees. But, part-time employees who work less than 34 hours per week must work for at least a year before being eligible to buy health insurance. "Only 24 percent of companies in the United States offer health benefits to part-time employees," Wal-Mart said in a statement on its Web site.
Full-time Wal-Mart employees are eligible for health insurance after six months.
Wal-Mart Watch cited a more recent study from Policy Matters Ohio, stating Wal-Mart tops the list of Ohio employers whose employees get government health care assistance. Minor children are eligible for coverage when the parent employee is, according to the Wal-Mart statement.
Arkansas is one of 24 states that tracks which employers have employees on state-funded health care programs, according to Wal-Mart Watch. The Washington, D.C.-based lobbying group counts among its partners the Sierra Club, the Service Employees International Union and the National Organization of Women.
"To get a plan with a $700 deductible and $4,000 out-of-pocket medical expenses still costs $7,000 a year, and the average Wal-Mart employee makes approximately $20,000 a year," according to a Wal-Mart Watch statement.
Scott asked in his speech why people did nothing about health care reform, a new energy policy, education reform or immigration reform when the stock market was robust and the nation was not at war in the Middle East.
"From what I have learned in business ... and from what I have seen in Washington ... the hard questions rarely get asked during the good times," Scott said.
"They are just too easy to ignore, too easy to avoid, too easy to put off when things are going well. Unfortunately ... it often takes a crisis or a period of great difficulty to face challenges and ... most importantly ... to change," he said.
Wal-Mart in 2005 paid $11 million to settle allegations the company knowingly had hundreds of illegal immigrants cleaning its stores, some working seven days a week and locked inside the stores overnight.
Wal-Mart on Dec. 23 also announced it was settling 63 of 73 pending class action wage and hour lawsuits, filed nationwide alleging employees were forced to work off the clock and not paid overtime.
American people are tired of partisanship and gamesmanship in Washington, D.C., Scott said, so government leaders need to work together with businesses.
"This can work. We have seen it work at Wal-Mart," Scott said. He cited Wal-Mart "becoming a more sustainable company," when some of the best came from non-government organizations and former critics.
A company doing good can make money, Scott said.
"Let me be clear about this point ... there is no conflict between delivering value to shareholders and helping solve bigger societal problems," he said.
Web Watch
Transcript Of Lee Scott's Speech To The National Retail Federation
http://walmartstores.com
National Retail Federation
www.nrf.org
Wake Up Wal-Mart
www.wakeupwalmart.com
Wal-Mart Watch
http://walmartwatch.com
At A Glance
Wal-Mart Succession
As of Feb. 1, the upper management at Bentonville-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will change.
President and CEO Lee Scott will be retired.
Mike Duke will succeed Lee Scott as president and chief executive officer.
C. Douglas McMillon, 42, will become president and CEO of Wal-Mart International.
The retailer has not yet named McMillon's replacement as president and CEO of Sam's Club.
Source: Staff Report
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