Wal-Mart Gets off the Hook Again

by Mike Hall, Dec 21, 2006

A federal judge ruled last week that Wal-Mart cannot be held liable for sweatshop conditions and other worker rights violations by its overseas suppliers, even though its contracts with those suppliers required that they abide by local labor standards.

Last year, the International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF) filed suit in California on behalf of the workers at Wal-Mart suppliers in China, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Swaziland and Nicaragua.

The class action lawsuit charged the workers were forced to work overtime without pay and in some cases were fired because they tried to organize unions.

The Los Angeles Times reports:

The complaint said that the contracts required suppliers in the five countries to comply with local labor standards and that the retailer’s failure to enforce those terms meant the employees were working under “sweatshop” conditions.

Ruling in the U.S. District Court for Central California, Judge Andrew Guilford said the group’s claims “go well beyond the recognized limits of liability and cannot be accepted.”

Lawyers for the workers will be allowed to file an amended complaint.

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