Black Friday dawns and so does violence in the workplace

Violence in the workplace, despite OSHA warnings, occurred as "Black Friday" store sales began. Today's post is shared from the washingtonpost.com Shoppers look at televisions at a Best Buy store late in the evening on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, Nov. 28, 2013, in Dunwoody, Ga. Instead of waiting for Black Friday, which is typically the year's biggest shopping day, more than a dozen major retailers opened on Thanksgiving this year. (AP Photo/David Tulis) A Chicago-area police officer and a suspect he shot in a shoplifting incident outside a Kohl's department store were in the hospital on Friday — a worst-case example of how Black Friday opened with madness, mayhem and violence. The incident began shortly past 10 p.m. on Thursday, when security officers with one Kohl's department store in Romeoville, outside Chicago, called police to report two men who were suspected of shoplifting. Police arrived on scene and tried to apprehend the men in the parking lot, Fox News reported. But the suspects ran to their car and tried to drive off — and one officer followed on foot, grabbing hold of the vehicle. Fox News reported that the officer and the driver were recovering in a nearby hospital on Friday. Meanwhile, both of those suspected shoplifters — as well as a third suspect who was apprehended in the store — were arrested.The driver continued to accelerate, dragging the officer, Fox News reported. Police then fired into the vehicle’s...

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Jon L. Gelman of Wayne NJ is the author NJ Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson) and co-author of the national treatise, Modern Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson). For over 4 decades the Law Offices of Jon L Gelman  1.973.696.7900  jon@gelmans.com  have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered occupational accidents and illnesses.

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Macy’s Joining Wal-Mart on Thanksgiving Energizes Labor

Macy’s Inc. (M), whose annual Manhattan Parade is a cherished Thanksgiving tradition for millions, is starting a new holiday ritual: It’s asking its employees to show up for work. Pressured by competition, a shorter shopping season and lackluster consumer spending, at least a dozen U.S. mega-retailers are opening for the first time on Thanksgiving Day,such as Macy’s, or opening earlier that day than in previous years. They are following Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT), the largest U.S.employer, which has been open for business on Thanksgiving for more than 25 years. “Another holiday bites the dust in favor of retailers,”Candace Corlett, president of New York consulting firm WSL Strategic Retail, said in a Nov. 12 phone interview. “Our Culture now is to shop, and to get the best deals. Thanksgiving As a day of rest was another culture, another time, not today.” The expansion of hours will take more than a million employees away from their families during the holiday. Organized Labor has been encouraging low-wage employees to join unions foryears to stem membership losses, and now wants to use the Thanksgiving hours to encourage workers to band together to improve working conditions. “It plays into the larger themes that we’ve been pushing around low-wage workers who don’t have a lot of job security,”Amaya Smith, a spokeswoman for the AFL-CIO, said in an interview. “Thanksgiving, Black Friday is one example of one holiday...

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Walmart Protests Promised To Be Even Bigger This Black Friday

Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from www.huffingtonpost.com

Walmart workers and their supporters are planning to kick off this year's holiday shopping season with protests at 1,500 Walmart stores around the country on Nov. 29. Advocates for Walmart workers hope to use Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year, to draw attention to what they describe as low wages and retaliation against employees who criticize the company. Protestors are hoping for an even better turnout than last year, when hundreds of Walmart workers walked off the job in 46 states on Black Friday, according to OUR Walmart, a group advocating for Walmart workers. Protests have already occurred in multiple cities this month -- most notably in Los Angeles, where more than 50 Walmart workers and supporters were arrested in what organizers described as the largest single act of civil disobedience in the retailer’s history. "We do expect [the protests] to be larger than last year because we have so many more members and so much more community support,” said Dan Schadelman, campaign director for Making a Change at Walmart, another advocacy group focusing on the rights of Walmart workers, in a conference call Thursday. "We're at an exciting moment, the movement of low-wage workers has taken off in 2013." Making a Change at Walmart is seeking an end to alleged retaliation against workers, as well as to win full-time work and $25,000 per year for those who seek it. Walmart, which made $17 billion in profit last year, is facing...

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Breaking: Wal-Mart workers on strike, defying firings

Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from www.salon.com

Breaking: Wal-Mart workers on strike, defying firings Dozens of workers at a Florida Wal-Mart walked off the job this morning, mounting the first Wal-Mart store work stoppage since the firings of 20 workers who participated in an extended June strike. “I don’t have fear,” striker Jose Bello told Salon in Spanish. “I don’t have any fear. They could punish us – we’re used to that.” Bello said that at least 80 of the employees at his Hialeah, Fla., store had joined the strike, which began at 9 a.m. Wal-Mart did not immediately respond to a request for comment. “I decided a long time ago to do this, but we needed to come together as a group to make the decision,” said Bello. He described the strike as a response to “abuse and discrimination” by managers, as well as insufficient hours. “I have four years here,” he said, and “they’re give me 29 hours … as a human being, I want 40 hours.” Bello told Salon that workers met Thursday and decided to strike. As Salon first reported, workers last fall mounted the first ever coordinated U.S. Wal-Mart strikes, including a high-profile “Black Friday” walkout the day after Thanksgiving. The group behind those strikes was OUR Walmart, a non-union labor group closely tied to the United Food &...

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8 Tips to Make Black Friday Safer

Black Friday Sale Crowds

The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration is encouraging retail employers to take precautions to prevent worker injuries during Black Friday and other major sales events during the holiday season.
In 2008, a worker was trampled to death while a mob of shoppers rushed through the doors of a large store to take advantage of an after-Thanksgiving Day Black Friday sales event. OSHA recommends that retailers follow certain safeguards against this type of tragedy.

"Crowd control and proper planning are critical to preventing injuries and deaths," said Dr. David Michaels, assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health. "OSHA urges retailers to adopt a crowd management plan during the holiday shopping season that includes a few simple guidelines."

Crowd management plans should include:

1. On-site trained security personnel or police officers.
2. Barricades or rope lines for pedestrians that do not start right in front of the store’s entrance.
3. Implementing crowd control measures well in advance of customers arriving at the store.
4. Emergency procedures in place to address potential dangers.
5. Explaining approach and entrance procedures to the arriving public.
6. Not allowing additional customers to enter the store when it reaches its maximum occupancy level.
7. Not blocking or locking exit doors.
8. Avoid "Black Friday" sales that create needless anxiety and crowd tension.

A fact sheet outlining these and other safety measures is available athttps://www.osha.gov/OshDoc/data_General_Facts/Crowd_Control.html. A letter that OSHA has sent to major retailers about preventing crowd-related injuries can be viewed at http://www.osha.gov/asst-sec/blackfriday_letter_2012.html.
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Jon L.Gelman of Wayne NJ, helping asbestos victims and their families for over 4 decades, is the author NJ Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson) and co-author of the national treatise, Modern Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson).  

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OSHA encourages major retailers to provide crowd management measures to protect workers during major sales events

The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration is encouraging major retail employers to take precautions to prevent worker injuries during Black Friday and other major sales events during the holiday season.

In 2008, a worker was trampled to death while a mob of shoppers rushed through the doors of a large store to take advantage of an after-Thanksgiving Day Black Friday sales event. The store was not using the kind of crowd management measures recommended in OSHA's fact sheet, which is available online at http://www.osha.gov/OshDoc/data_General_Facts/Crowd_Control.html.

"Crowd control is critical to preventing injuries and deaths," said OSHA Assistant Secretary Dr. David Michaels. "These incidents can be prevented by adopting a crowd management plan, and this fact sheet provides retail employers with guidelines for avoiding injuries during the holiday shopping season."

The fact sheet provides employers with recommended elements for crowd management plans. Plans should include having trained security personnel or police officers on-site, setting up barricades or rope lines for pedestrians and crowd control well in advance of customers arriving at the store, making sure that barricades are set up so that the customers' line does not start right at the entrance of the store, having emergency procedures in place that address potential dangers, and having security personnel or customer service representatives explain approach and entrance procedures to the arriving public.

OSHA also recommends not allowing additional customers to enter the store when it reaches its maximum occupancy level and not blocking or locking exit doors.


For over 4 decades the Law Offices of Jon L. Gelman  1.973.696.7900  jon@gelmans.com have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered occupational accidents and illnesses.

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Accidents Caused by Fatiguing Employment Require a Remedy

Employees sometimes are directed to work long and stressful hours and then if they become injured they are left without a remedy.  A Court recently held that even though an employee who was killed as a result of fatigue related accident while driving home after working  22 hours straight on "Black Friday" for Wal-Mart was without a remedy.

The Court reasoned that the law barred any recovery. The Workers' Compensation Act is not an available remedy the Court held since the injured occurred off the premises of the employer and not under the employers control. Also a civil action was barred by the deceased's estate against Wal-Mart since the Court reasoned that, "...The imposition of a duty upon an employer for injuries sustained by an employee, arguably arising out of the fatiguing conditions of employment, yet occurring outside of the course of employment would alter the necessary balance struck by the New Jersey legislature when defining the scope of compensable injuries." 

Despite the changing economic times, the laws should keep pace with the growing momentum of making the workplace safer. Regressive employment practices are not the solution for a healthier workplace. It is more important than ever that the Legislature revisit working conditions and strike a balance to provide a regulatory response to injuries and accident caused by such adverse situations.

See: Aylward v Wal-Mart Stores Inc., CA No. 10-4799, 2011 WL 2357762 (D.N.J.) Decided June 9, 2011

For over 3 decades the Law Offices of Jon L. Gelman  1.973.696.7900  jon@gelmans.com have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered occupational accidents and illnesses.

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