Labor Observation

Labor observation in Mexico City Store

Background

Since Wal-Mart entered the Mexican market in 1991, there has been a systematic violation of Mexican labor law. ProDESC conducted two investigations since 2006 about human rights violations perpetrated against Walmex employees, specifically on minors who work as packers. The first investigation was conducted through interviews focused on the Walmex’s failure to comply with Mexican labor law and human rights standards governing the use of child labor. The second investigation, which was also achieved through interviews, focused on analyzing the performance of Walmex’s respect for labor rights, specifically towards women workers.

Issues

In the case of underaged workers without a salary, 100% of them reported routine violations of their rights, although the specific violations varied substantially. The results show that Walmex does not comply with Mexican labor law and lacks a uniform policy for handling relations with its employees without pay. In the context of women, it is very important to note that the retail sales industry is one of the largest employers of women in the country. They are disproportionately affected by poor work practices that include low salaries and denial of employment if they are pregnant.

Thanks to such research, we could identify the existence of a pattern of recurring violations towards various labor rights, which are summarized as follows:

Discrimination by gender

Abuse of working days

Prohibition on union formation

Abuse of minors with regard to financial remuneration or lack specifically on volunteer recruitment

Process Narrative

With respect to Walmex’s child workers without pay ProDESC conducted interviews with 80 of them. Data was collected in 12 Walmex stores in the summer of 2005 and another in 6 in the second half of 2006. Similarly, from June to July 2007 there were 254 interviews with women workers in Mexico Walmex and 8 states in Guerrero, Tlaxcala and Morelos.

The interviews were developed in order to visualize the working conditions of women and children packers who are working in the company. Interviews were conducted mainly in the self-service areas of Wal-mart super Center and Bodega Aurrera. Interviews also included were those with workers from Sams Club, Vips, and Suburban. As a result we got a diagnosis that has allowed us to have a clearer picture of their working conditions.

With the gathered information of the investigation Low prices at a high cost: Violations against labor rights in Wal-Mart Mexico was published, which identifies the absences of mechanisms that hold transnational corporations accountable, as well as the lack of guarantees and protection of working conditions for thousands of women and child workers provided by the state. Consequently, a working observatory to continuously monitor changes and try to boost working conditions was established.