Warehouse workers win court decision

Walmart and one of its warehouse operators have been ordered by a federal court to stand trial for allegedly violating the workplace rights at three Inland Empire logistics operations.

U.S. District Judge Christina A. Snyder ruled Tuesday that Schneider Logistics and Walmart could be considered responsible for the working conditions at three warehouses that Walmart leases in Mira Loma, according to Warehouse Workers United in Ontario.

Both companies maintain they are not responsible for the working conditions at those facilities because the workers aren’t their employees. Rather, the workers are employed by several temporary staffing agencies, and those entities should be liable for the work environment at all three operations, according to Walmart and Schneider Logistics.

But Snyder noted in her ruling that Walmart leases all the equipment at the warehouses, sets all productivity standards and controls workers’ schedules and their method and rate of pay.

Guadalupe Palma, director of Warehouse Workers United, praised the decision.

“Walmart and other major retailers use complicated networks of subcontractors to try to insulate themselves from liability for workplace violations,” Palma said in a statement posted Wednesday on the advocacy group’s website. “The federal court has rejected Walmart’s efforts to pin the blame on its contractors and subcontractors while pretending it had no idea the law was being broken.”

Walmart officials could not be reached for comment.

Workers at all three facilities filed a class action lawsuit in October 2011 that alleged they were routinely forced to work off the clock, were denied overtime pay and were harassed when they asked for better treatment.

At the same time, officials with the state Department of Labor Standards Enforcement raided the warehouse and issued more than $1 million in citations and fines for improper record keeping alone.