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Service members working for Walmart are fighting for paid military leave in a class action lawsuit alleging violations of federal law.
Lead plaintiff Nickolas T. argues Walmart compensates its associates for unworked hours when they’re summoned for jury duty or have a death in the family, but employees with military obligations are left unpaid.
He claims Walmart is obligated to offer paid leave for short-term military absences under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA).
Passed in 1994, USERRA “requires military leave to be treated no less favorably than any other forms of comparable leave that an employer provides to its employees,” according to the Department of Labor, and “is intended to minimize the disadvantages to an individual that occur when that person needs to be absent from his or her civilian employment to serve in this country’s uniformed services.”
According to the Department of Labor’s website, USERRA covers “virtually every individual” who has served or is serving in the U.S. military and applies to all public and private employers.
Nickolas has worked for a Walmart in Dracut, Massachusetts, since 2009, according to the complaint. He joined the Army Reserve in 2014 and has never been granted paid leave by Walmart.
He says since at least 2004, Walmart policy provided for paid short-term leave in certain cases but never in one related to military service.
Walmart “has never provided any wages or salaries to Associates who have taken short-term military leave of three days or less,” Nickolas says in the class action lawsuit.
Walmart employs 1.5 million Americans, according to Nickolas, and has hired some 320,000 veterans and military spouses since 2013.
Nickolas wants an order from the Court declaring Walmart is in violation of USERRA and wants Walmart associates to be fully paid for short-term military leave in the future.
The class action lawsuit also seeks an award of the full pay associates were entitled to receive for past short-term military leave.
Nickolas is seeking to represent a Class of individuals who have ever worked for Walmart and have taken short-term military leave since Oct. 10, 2004.
USERRA violations have been alleged in several class action lawsuits in the last few years.
Southwest Airlines settled a matter with its pilots for $19 million over similar claims in 2018.
A judge dismissed a class action lawsuit against American Airlines that cited USERRA in January 2020.
That same month, FedEx was hit with a class action lawsuit alleging it didn’t grant military leave, either.
Do you know Walmart associates who also serve in the military? Were they given paid military leave? Have you ever been denied paid military leave? What do you think about these claims? Let us know in the comments below.
Counsel representing the plaintiffs in the military leave class action lawsuit are Nathaniel Sliver, R. Joseph Barton of Block & Leviton LLP; Michael J. Scimone of Outten & Golden LLP; Peter Romer-Friedman of Gupta Wessler PLLC; Thomas G. Jarrard of Law Office Of Thomas Jarrard PLLC; Matthew Z. Crotty of Crotty & Son Law Firm, PLLC.
The Military Leave Class Action Lawsuit is Nickolas T., et al. v. Walmart Inc., Case No. 1:20-cv-12309, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, Eastern Division.
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3 thoughts onWalmart Denies Paid Military Leave, Class Action Lawsuit Claims
I took no less than 5 days of leave for the military over the course of 4 years at Walmart. Never saw a penny from Walmart because the military paid me better than Walmart did, that’s exactly what I was told when I called in my leave of absence every time.
I have definitely been denied paid military leave by my employer and harassed about my military duty the whole time I was working for them.
My husband is military and they owe him over 2g in back pay for not recognizing him being military they didn’t start him off as military with higher pay. (Which is a thing!!) I found that funny seeing how they gave him a placard for being military for a year with them. Every time he brings anything up they say that it’s escalated and that they’re working on it but this is 2 years in the making. Every time he asks for answers they say their hands are tied and he gets no updates on if anything’s even being done about this.