A new smartphone app whose creators say they aim to educate Walmart employees about company policies has put the nation's biggest retailer at odds again with the labor group responsible for the app.
WorkIt, which hit the Google Play store Monday, gives users information on workplace rights at Walmart. Questions entered in the WorkIt chat function are answered by current and ex-Walmart workers, but IBM Watson-powered artificial intelligence works in the background, too, and is expected to eventually answer queries more quickly.
The group behind the app, OUR Walmart, also helped organize nationwide protests for better pay and working conditions at Walmart stores and at the retailer's Bentonville, Ark. headquarters in 2012 and 2013. The United Food & Commercial Workers International Union, which had attempted to unionize Walmart workers in the past, supported OUR Walmart in those efforts. The not-for-profit group split with the union last year.
'OUR Walmart is not currently seeking to unionize Walmart,' said co-director Dan Schlademan. 'Our focus is to continue to build OUR Walmart and use collective action to create change at Walmart.'
The group started working on the app several months ago and launched it this week to make it easier for employees to access information about their workplace rights. Currently, employees say they must log onto a terminal at work to check company policies. Representatives from OUR Walmart say store supervisors are holding meetings to intimidate employees not to download it, according to two Walmart employees who are part of OUR Walmart.
Right now, there are a lot of questions about Walmart's new paid time-off policy, making the smartphone app a draw, these employees said.
'It is really hard to get time to access the computers at work to look things up,' said Betsy Marler, a Walmart employee in Mobile, Ala. who is a member of OUR Walmart. 'This puts it in your hand and you can use it any time you want to.'
Walmart has told its employees to be wary of the app because it is not software authorized by the company. “Our associates already have anytime-access online to the company’s most current and accurate Paid Time Off policies and there is no way to know if the details this group is pushing are correct,' the company said in an email statement from Walmart spokesman Kory Lundberg. 'Our people are smart and see this for what it is, an attempt by an outside group to collect as much personal and private information as possible.”
Bloomberg reported on the WorkIt app Monday and The Wall Street Journal reported that Walmart had instructed managers to tell employees that WorkIt was not an official Walmart app and that it could result in unwanted sharing of personal information.
Last year, Walmart raised worker wages after years of protests about employee compensation. And last month, the world's largest retailer gave raises to some managers in advance of new labor regulations on overtime pay.
In the past, OUR Walmart's Facebook page has encouraged employees to connect there and has had about 100,000 employees who have participated in online conversations. But that can lead to workers only getting part of the information, says Joanna Chambers, a Walmart employee in Amory, Miss., who is also part of OUR Walmart. 'This is going to allow you to narrow it down specifically to you asking a question to somebody who can help you to that correct information,' she said.
Managers are worried that this app 'is going to help associates connect with each other,' Marler said. 'They want to keep the power to themselves and they don’t want us empowered and to be able to access this on our own.'
Added Chambers, 'at that point, we are no longer able to be manipulated.'
Walmart counters that it's not worried about workers connecting with each othe and says the company's WalmartOne website lets workers access company information, as well as paystubs and work schedules, and connect with coworkers. 'There have been group discussions taking place on WalmartOne for more than a year where associates have the opportunity to pose questions and get accurate answers from inside the company,' Lundberg says. More than one million associates access the site every month.
As for the WorkIt app, he says 'it’s up to associates to decide what they want to do with the app; we are just making sure they know this isn’t coming from the company and this group can do anything they want with someone’s personal information once they have it.'
OUR Walmart enlisted New York's Quadrant 2 to develop the app's software and licensed IBM's Watson artificial intelligence tech for the app. Employees said, 'We need someplace when I’m sitting at work and I’m facing a supervisor telling me this or somebody doing this to me, that I can get some advice on what to do',' said Schlademan. Walmart employee website doesn't include the whole 250-page policy manual, the group notes.
Current or former Walmart employees volunteer to answer questions that users pose through the WorkIt app. Along the way, the Watson AI learns the questions and subsequent answers so eventually it 'can give it that answer (more quickly),' Schlademan said.
The app does ask for a worker's name, email, phone number and zip code; users can input their job title and Walmart store they work at, too. Beyond that, the app ask for access to the Internet and the device's camera should he or she want to add a profile picture. 'It doesn't ask for location or contacts,' he said.
OUR Walmart plans to add more features to WorkIt -- an iOS version is expected before Black Friday -- and is making it available elsewhere, including among workers in Australia, he said.
Follow Mike Snider on Twitter: @MikeSnider
Wal-Mart is the largest private employer in the U.S., and has 2.2 million employees around the world.
But at least a handful of those workers say they've lost their jobs for insane reasons.
One employee claimed she was let go for saving a puppy, while another tried to fight back against the Black Friday masses and lost her job.
Other employees were supposedly axed for less noble pursuits.
For throwing around iPads and posting a video of it online.
Walmart fired employees at a Kentucky store who posted a video of themselves throwing and dropping boxes containing iPads in the storeroom, according to NBC News.
'Hope nobody buys that,' one said.
Walmart said it was embarrassed at the behavior, telling NBC News, 'It made us wince.'
For stopping an armed robber.
Walmart supposedly fired four employees who managed to disarm a robber at a Utah store, according to the Consumerist.
The thief was allegedly trying to steal a netbook, and when the employees confronted him, he pulled out a handgun.
Walmart policy states that employees are required to 'disengage' and 'withdraw' if a customer presents a weapon.
For praying with a crying customer.
A pharmacist sued Walmart for religious discrimination, claiming she was canned for praying with a customer (and getting caught on camera).
The video supposedly showed the pharmacist touching the hand of the customer, who was crying, according to ABC News.
The employee said she was merely helping a patient, not praying. But she did not dispute that she prayed 'with customers when requested to do so,' ABC reported.
For defending herself on Black Friday.
A 22-year veteran Walmart greeter says she was dismissed after a Black Friday fight in the store.
The greeter claimed a woman shoved her in the aisle. Either to keep balance or defend herself, she grabbed the woman's sweater, she told the Tampa Bay Times.
'Walmart was like my home,' she told the Tampa Bay Times. 'Like my family.'
For saving a puppy, though Walmart denies this report.
The company denied the report, but an Examiner story claimed that an employee was reprimanded by a supervisor after trying to help a 'scared and hungry and cold' dog that wandered into the store in Oregon.
The manager supposedly told the employee to put the puppy back outside after she tried to call a rescue group and told her to 'get out.'
For using medical marijuana.
A Michigan employee says he was let go after using medical marijuana for pain he was feeling from an inoperable brain tumor, according to NBC News.
The employee had a prescription for marijuana and said he never went to work high or used it during work, according to NBC News.
The employee was drug tested after suffering a knee injury on the job. Walmart told NBC News that the situation 'unfortunate.'
Walmart Employee Policies And Procedures
For ranting on social media.
A 60-year-old greeter claimed he was fired in Virginia after posting a potentially offensive Facebook status.
The status read: 'Better health care means that disabled and chronically ill people live longer.' … Reader's Digest … But is that a good thing?,' according to local news site WDBJ7.
The greeter was allegedly let go after a woman complained to Walmart about the post, WDBJ7 reported.
For talking with employees after hours.
One Walmart supervisor was shown the door in 2011 for 'off-the-clock work,' which isn't allowed at the superstore chain.
During an investigation into allegations the supervisor made that employees were biased against her, she called an employee after hours and chatted for 90 minutes— in part, to talk about work. AOL Jobs reported.
Walmart said the employee had to be paid for the off-the-clock time and fired the supervisor for not following company regulations.
For stopping a shoplifter.
A customer service manager was terminated in Kansas for confronting a man she saw attempting to steal a computer, according to The Wichita Eagle.
The manager asked to see the man's receipt after he set off an alarm. The man punched and kicked her before ditching the computer, The Eagle reported.
Walmart Policy Handbook
The next day, the manager let go. The company said only asset protection employees are allowed to stop potential shoplifters.
For abusing a Muslim co-worker.
A South Carolina employee was let go after calling a Muslim co-worker a derogatory name, grabbing her arm and threatening to cut her throat, according to the Charlotte Observer.
The employee was fired after the co-worker reported the incident to a manager.
For taking four sick days in six months.
A former journalist who worked at Walmart for a year sent Gawker an angry letter, claiming she was fired from the store.
She said she was canned for taking four sick days in six months, but she seemed happy to never have to work there again.
'I just couldn't waste one more second of my life in that soulless corporate hellhole,' she wrote. 'There's only one way to go from now on and that's up.'
For eating Oreos.
A 63-year-old employee in Indiana was terminated after being caught eating Oreos in a store aisle, ABC News reported.
Management discovered the crime on tape after finding an empty Oreo wrapper in the store aisle and looking through security footage.
She was arrested for felony theft, and told an investigator she didn't have the funds to buy the cookies herself, according to ABC News.
The switch here, and Jason Scott Lee does it with skill and heart of genius, is that Mowgli talks to the animals in their languages. Jungle book cartoon full movie. With me was my daughter Katherine, whom everyone called Kitty. But mostly, it is about love. My new command was at the edge of the world, surrounded by a million miles of jungle.
For pretending to be a reporter.
A Walmart public relations representative was let go after she posed as a college journalism student.
The incident took place during a labor union event that was aimed at helping Walmart workers organize, according to the Huffington Post.
She used a fake name to sign in and interview employees. Walmart fired her and said they didn't approve of her tactics.