Bobby
06-21-2005, 02:23 PM
. . .to protect them from 2 whistleblower lawsuits filed. Shows how far they will go to destroy the enemy - 2 helpless former employees, the unions, KMART, and in not too long TARGET.
Some EXCERPTS from the article (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette) regisration required or I woulda posted a link. hope you don't mind PA -
Wal-Mart hires new attorney
Whistle-blower act familiar to lawyer
BY CHRISTOPHER LEONARD ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
To defend itself against the first federal whistle-blower lawsuits filed against it, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has hired attorney Eugene Scalia, who helped implement the very law employees are using to file the suits.
In the past month two Wal-Mart employees have filed complaints with the U.S. Department of Labor claiming that the world’s biggest retailer violated the federal Sarbanes-Oxley Act by firing them after they reported wrongdoing.
Scalia, the son of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, helped the Labor Department decide how to implement whistle-blower protection statutes of the law after its passage in 2002. While his experience in Washington will help him argue the case, it has also made him a lightning rod for Wal-Mart’s increasingly vocal critics.
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"By bringing aboard Scalia, Wal-Mart has abandoned any pretense of even-handedness in its treatment of whistleblowers," said Tracy Sefl, a spokesman for the Wal-Mart Watch activist group.
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Scalia will defend Wal-Mart in legal proceedings filed by former corporate Vice President Jared Bowen and former employee Rickey Armstrong, who worked at the company’s Dallas optical plant. Both employees say they were fired shortly after reporting wrongdoing to Wal-Mart’s management.
Bowen and Armstrong are represented by Dallas attorney Steve Kardell.
Bowen says he reported suspicious expense reports that he was told to approve by his boss, former Wal-Mart Vice Chairman Thomas Coughlin. Armstrong said he reported corporate wrongdoing committed by the manager at the Dallas plant, where Armstrong was a quality-control employee.
Wal-Mart spokesman Mona Williams said neither employee is a whistle-blower and that both were dismissed for misconduct.
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Before joining the Labor Department, Scalia publicly lobbied against regulations President Clinton helped enact to govern workplace ergonomics. Congress repealed the regulations after Clinton left office.
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Judy Kramer, an attorney who worked at the Labor Department between 1987 and 2003, said Scalia is a rigorous legal thinker who has no problem arguing different sides of the issue.
"That’s really what an ethical attorney is supposed to do — advocate within the bounds of law for their client," Kramer said. "I found [Scalia] just very energetic, very creative and very committed to enforcing the law. I found him very evenhanded."
Others weren’t quite as convinced of Scalia’s objectivity. U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, singled out Scalia’s implementation of whistleblower protections set out in Sarbanes-Oxley.
In 2002, Scalia sent a brief to the Justice Department regarding a self-described whistle-blower named Gregory Sasse, who was suing the department. As part of the brief, Scalia suggested Sasse was not protected because he had not taken his complaints to a member of Congress specifically appointed to an investigative committee.
Grassley said whistle-blowers should have protection if they take complaints to any member of Congress. A Grassley spokesman said last week that the senator still considers Scalia hostile to whistle-blowers.
Some EXCERPTS from the article (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette) regisration required or I woulda posted a link. hope you don't mind PA -
Wal-Mart hires new attorney
Whistle-blower act familiar to lawyer
BY CHRISTOPHER LEONARD ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
To defend itself against the first federal whistle-blower lawsuits filed against it, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has hired attorney Eugene Scalia, who helped implement the very law employees are using to file the suits.
In the past month two Wal-Mart employees have filed complaints with the U.S. Department of Labor claiming that the world’s biggest retailer violated the federal Sarbanes-Oxley Act by firing them after they reported wrongdoing.
Scalia, the son of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, helped the Labor Department decide how to implement whistle-blower protection statutes of the law after its passage in 2002. While his experience in Washington will help him argue the case, it has also made him a lightning rod for Wal-Mart’s increasingly vocal critics.
----
"By bringing aboard Scalia, Wal-Mart has abandoned any pretense of even-handedness in its treatment of whistleblowers," said Tracy Sefl, a spokesman for the Wal-Mart Watch activist group.
---------
Scalia will defend Wal-Mart in legal proceedings filed by former corporate Vice President Jared Bowen and former employee Rickey Armstrong, who worked at the company’s Dallas optical plant. Both employees say they were fired shortly after reporting wrongdoing to Wal-Mart’s management.
Bowen and Armstrong are represented by Dallas attorney Steve Kardell.
Bowen says he reported suspicious expense reports that he was told to approve by his boss, former Wal-Mart Vice Chairman Thomas Coughlin. Armstrong said he reported corporate wrongdoing committed by the manager at the Dallas plant, where Armstrong was a quality-control employee.
Wal-Mart spokesman Mona Williams said neither employee is a whistle-blower and that both were dismissed for misconduct.
------
Before joining the Labor Department, Scalia publicly lobbied against regulations President Clinton helped enact to govern workplace ergonomics. Congress repealed the regulations after Clinton left office.
-----
Judy Kramer, an attorney who worked at the Labor Department between 1987 and 2003, said Scalia is a rigorous legal thinker who has no problem arguing different sides of the issue.
"That’s really what an ethical attorney is supposed to do — advocate within the bounds of law for their client," Kramer said. "I found [Scalia] just very energetic, very creative and very committed to enforcing the law. I found him very evenhanded."
Others weren’t quite as convinced of Scalia’s objectivity. U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, singled out Scalia’s implementation of whistleblower protections set out in Sarbanes-Oxley.
In 2002, Scalia sent a brief to the Justice Department regarding a self-described whistle-blower named Gregory Sasse, who was suing the department. As part of the brief, Scalia suggested Sasse was not protected because he had not taken his complaints to a member of Congress specifically appointed to an investigative committee.
Grassley said whistle-blowers should have protection if they take complaints to any member of Congress. A Grassley spokesman said last week that the senator still considers Scalia hostile to whistle-blowers.