By: Sylvia Hsieh, Posted
October 26, 2012 at http://blogs.lawyers.com/2012/10/walmart-worker-wins-1-5-million-for-verbal-abuse-by-boss/
As Walmart employees stage their first retail-worker strike across the country, a 42-year-old
former assistant manager has won
a $1.5 million lawsuit for being
mistreated by a store manager.
Meredith Boucher claimed she was verbally
abused for six months between May and November 2009 when she worked as an
assistant manager of a Walmart in Canada.
Boucher’s lawsuit accused store manager Jason
Pinnock, 32, of calling her a “[expletive] idiot,” a “gong show” and “stupid”
and that he made her count items in front of others to prove she could count.
“I didn’t eat. I was losing weight. I was
throwing up blood, I was sick to my stomach all the time,” Boucher said.
The jury awarded her more than she originally
sued for.
In California, five female Walmart employees
are suing for gender discrimination individually, after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a class action lawsuit brought
by 1.5 million female employees against Walmart – the largest sex
discrimination lawsuit in history.
Currently, employees are striking against
Walmart’s attempts to “silence, retaliate against workers for speaking out for
improvements on the job,” and are threatening to walk out on Black Friday,
which is one of the biggest shopping days of the year.
Boucher’s attorney, Myron Shulgan of Shulgan, Martini & Marusic,
said he was happy for his client.
“She championed the cause for workers and
indicated that corporations will be made to respond to improper treatment of
employees,” Shulgan said.
