Many of us have been faced with the decision of going to work while we feel sick or calling out of work and trying to stay home to feel better. Workers who live paycheck to paycheck cannot afford this luxury and sometimes go to work sick to avoid any employment repercussion . Its the fear of losing ones job or being reprimanded that forces these individuals to make decisions that are not only harmful to themselves but for those around them. In the case of Wando Evans, Mr Evans returned to work even after he told his managers of his conditions and was later found dead in his apartment two days later.
The idea of losing an employee hurts any company and Walmart is not exempt from that list. The corona virus has quickly over turned peoples lives and many employers are struggling to keep up with the drastic changes. In an interview with Walmart’s store employees, many are saying that they are devastated and that they worry for their own health and safety. Daryl Bell was a close friend with Wando Evans and worked with Evans. “I’m devastated because I know I won’t get a chance to say goodbye to him,” and other said Mr Evan had a “heart of gold” and was an engaged man to be married. Mr Evans had worked at the Walmart in Evergreen park for over 15 years as an overnight stock and maintenance employee.
A spokes person for Walmart has neglected to comment on the story and said instead, “We take the issue seriously and will respond with the court once we have been served with the complaint.”. The lawsuit was filed on Monday in Cooks County.
Since Walmart has two individuals that faced similar outcomes from the Corona Virus in their store, Walmart has upped their sanitation procedures with in the store. This includes staffing more people to disinfect and wipe down and heavily touched surfaces within the store. Providing proper Proper Protective Equipment (PPE) such as plastics gloves and mask. Walmart has also taken further steps into hiring a third party disinfecting company to disinfect their store. Unfortunately for Mr Evans, these improvements have come too late and has put Walmart under scrutiny once again.
In my opinion, Walmart did not do enough to prevent the death of their employees and should be held completely accountable for the wrongful death of these two gentlemen. Within the court documents of the lawsuit, the documents say that Mr Evans had reported his illness to managers but that they continued to schedule Mr Evans for work. The documents also state that Walmart failed to provide PPE for their workers and even failed notified employees that other co-workers within the store were experiencing symptoms related to the COVID-19 syndrome.
Armando's Blogg 
The lack of PPE in the world right now is definitely a serious concern during this pandemic, and Walmart should have taken more precautions such as hand sanitizer at the door and investing in the third-party cleaning service long before any workers became ill. I do agree that their changes are a reaction to a disaster instead of in preparation for one. The failure to notify other employees that some workers were experiencing symptoms is actually terrible. That is one of the first things that should have been done, especially under the pretenses of “Flatten the Curve”, because then those employees could have stayed home to quarantine and saved customers and fellow workers’ health.
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There were many parts to this story that were disturbing but failure to notify other employees of a co-workers condition was the cherry on top. The managers were aware of Mr Evan’s condition and failed to take proper action. Its actually surprising that more people weren’t injured, but the deaths of two employees was unacceptable, and their families should righteously be aware the wrong death lawsuit.
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Walmart’s response is a joke. No compensation towards the family or any of the employees is absolutely ridiculous, and they should be ashamed as a company to have allowed themselves to push an employee to the brink of death. With no public statement, it seems that Walmart has completely ignored the situation and gotten away with it, especially since they’re a grocer open at this time. The PPE rules aren’t even being effectively taken, as there is little to no precaution in the store by its employees or customers. This is a very dangerous time and Walmart is only adding to it, and no one is noticing.
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Walmart is such a huge organization that some of these issues go unnoticed. However, with the death of two employees from the same store put a bigger target on Walmarts back. I feel like any lawyer would have a field day with this case but the money inside of Walmarts pockets would make this a long an expensive legal fight. That’s why many of these issues go unnoticed, because Walmart has enough money and lawyers to drag out these cases until the victims run out of money and can no longer afford to fight the legal battle.
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Walmart is inexcusable. They can claim that it’s hard to get PPE right now and they can claim that nothing is going to someone from getting the virus(which is what I expect they will say”, BUT they without a doubt forced their employee to return to work. The proof is in the pudding especially when we take into account their long history of undervaluing their employees. I always found it Ironic when they paid so much money on a commercial indicating the small raise they gave to all their employees. They were trying to look great ethically by doing the bare minimum in my opionion.
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Unfortunately, that is a hiring tactic by Walmart. They try to employ low-skill workers to do most of their generic duties and pay a minimum to their workers. I’ve been to a few Walmarts in my life and the employees there almost always look miserable. I’ve never worked for Walmart but there doesn’t seem to be unity or togetherness among the employees. Everyone is just a number and when one stops working they quickly replace them with another.
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It’s disgusting how far employers will push their employees when money is involved. People of all ages work at these grocery stores, with all different kinds of health conditions. It’s repulsive to see that Walmart is putting their employees’ health on the line, and on top of that, not even giving compensation. This makes me think of Walmart so differently and honestly I do not see myself going back there in the near future because of this.
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