WalMart Again Shows It's True Colors

You gotta hand it to WalMart. They sure know how to treat people; from denying insurance to their employees, and underpaying the employees they have, to harassing gay shoppers and their families.

But this is too much, even for WalMart.

In Las Vegas, eighteen-year-old Fernando Gallardo was looking for a part-time job, and was hired as a seasonal worker by WalMart, But a few weeks into the job, Fernando Gallardo says his supervisor asked him "point-blank," in the presence of coworkers, if he was gay.

"I told her yes, and after that she was very rude and short with me," Gallardo says.

And then he was stripped of many of his daily duties and asked to wear a yellow vest--not the traditional blue vest--and simply walk around the store. In May his supervisor and two other managers stopped talking to him completely.

"I was completely ignored and shunned," he complained to the Nevada Equal Rights Commission. "I had nothing to do all day but wander around the store wearing a yellow vest no one else had to wear, much like Jews had to wear a yellow star of David in Hitler's Germany."

Gallardo spoke with a WalMart human resources manager, and filed a report, but nothing changed. In his report he also accuses the store's management of attempting to bribe those other coworkers with permanent positions, in exchange for saying he had volunteered the information that he was gay.

Like volunteering that information suddenly gives them the right to discriminate.

But Nevada law forbids antigay discrimination, as does Walmart corporate policy. And, though none of the managers at the Las Vegas store would comment on the incident, Walmart corporate spokesman Phil Keene says the company fosters "respect for individuals" as one of its core beliefs and a foundation of Walmart culture. Keene also says that,while corporate headquarters has not been made aware of Gallardo's case and cannot directly address the complaint, there may be an explanation behind the yellow vest.

"It is my understanding that the former associate was a temporary hire while the store is under remodeling," Keene said. "Between the 50 or so temporary associates in that store, there is a rotation through the position of 'May I Help You' associate. The several associates in this role wear a vest so customers can identify them and ask for help in finding products that may have been temporarily moved to a new spot."

But Gallardo was never told that, nor was he told to assist customers; he was told to wear the vest and walk around the store.

On May 17, a week before Gallardo quit his job, he says he overheard two managers talking, with one saying to the other, that Gallardo was "a little girl. All he is good for is walking around the store."

Gallardo has been unemployed since leaving WalMart, but no longer dreads waking up to go to work in the morning. He has filed a complaint with the Nevada Equal Rights Commission, and if his claims are found to be true, Gallardo could be entitled to monetary compensation amounting to $114,000 and a position at another Walmart store.

As if he would want to go back.

What Fernando Gallardo does want, however, is for WalMart to hold mandatory annual cultural diversity training for all Walmart and Sam's Club supervisors and managers in Clark County, Nevada.

"I just don't want this to happen to anyone else," he says.