Question:

Activity Type:Mock Trial: Group Activity

Objective:This objective of this assignment is to provide an opportunity for students to apply common law (torts) in a trial like situation. Students will learn the procedure involved in a trial- like collecting evidence, preparing arguments.

Mock Simulation Situation Case:

Instructors can choose any case from the textbook. Some case samples have been provided in professor resources.

Student Teams: two participants will play the role of the plaintiff and defendant in walmart case to claim a product.Two or more participants will play the roles of the witnesses from the plaintiff's side, and two or more form the defendant's side. One participant will play the role of the plaintiff's lawyer, and one will play the role of the defendant's lawyer. One other participant will serve as the judge. Alternatively, if there are more students than there are roles, more than one judges can be appointed. A maximum number of four judges are recommended. If there are some extra students, they can be made observers and their job will be to observe and report the findings to the class once the trial is over.

Case Preparation Report

Instructions:

this part of the simulation will be preparation. Students will receive their side of documents and will plan their strategy . They will submit their plan along with key arguments and precedents they plan to refer to during the hearing. It is important that the judges understand the order of the hearing

CASE: Walmart

Employment comes with many different regulations for different aspects of every relationship involved. This paper will discuss Wal-Mart's key legal ramifications to issues such as restrictive constraints, access and use of technology resources, access and use of confidential propitiatory information, transfer of intellectual work property, performance evaluation, discrimination, and health and safety.

Legal Ramifications - Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart was founded by Sam Walton to provide low prices for consumers (Ghazzawi, Palladini, & Martinelli-Lee, 2014). As the best positioned retailer in the world, Wal-Mart retained their competitive advantage by implementing a strategic plan and business model that is based on a productivity loop of low prices and low operating costs (Ghazzawi, Palladini, & Martinelli-Lee, 2014). The company employs over 21.1 million associates in more than 8,970 stores, with so many people involved it can become difficult to follow and monitor all legal requirements.Below is an analysis on all the legal ramifications in each of the issues involved in employment.

Restrictive covenants. As an employer, Wal-Mart doesn't restrict their employers from working with other competitive organizations however, they do give employees and suppliers a code of conduct upon hiring that acts as an employee and employer contract (Kenny, 2007).For a contractual relationship to be created from employer codes of conduct, some court decisions indicate that when an employer puts forth formal personnel policies and procedures in codes of conduct, those policies and procedures will be viewed as contractually binding (Kenny, 2007).In Wal-Mart's case, even though the parties do not sign any physical paper, they agree to these terms as soon as they begin to work after being given this code of conduct as thus have accepted the contract (Kenny, 2007).For Wal-Mart employees, the Code of Conduct is a binding obligation when they accept the job, this obligation gives insight into Wal-Mart's intent in creating a code of conduct for suppliers. This case is also relevant because it allows courts to see codes of conduct, particularly ones that are distributed and displayed to employees, as having some binding force on those employees. However, codes are held to be illegal if they contain a clause that violates local law and as Wal-Mart operates in several different countries those local laws may not bind employees to these contractual codes of conducts.

Access and use of Technology Resources.All Wal-Mart employees have access to technology resources that is offered at Wal-Mart based on their specific job description and responsibilities.Employees in sales will not have access to manager's databases, nor would sales managers have access to accounting software programs.In addition, neither technological resources will be available for individuals outside the company.

Access and use of Confidential and Proprietary Information.All the confidential and proprietary information is not accessible to all employees in the organization.Wal-Mart being such a large corporation there are several different positions, thus confidential and proprietary information will only be accessible to individuals in the corporate areas of the organization.Even so there are limitations to this, for example, information based on new company strategies or products, may only be available to R&D, marketing, and accounting departments until it has been approved.Which then can be sent to other departments to determine how it will be incorporated.Also, access is denied for the information that is critical and sensitive to the company, to only top executives and board members.

Transfer of Intellectual Property Work Product refers to transferring of the company's assets such as laptops, vehicles, or mobile phones to specific employees in the organization.Employees can use all company intellectual properties provided to them by the company for all company related and official work for as long as they are working for the organization. Once they leave the organization, employees transfer these assets back to the company.

Performance Evaluation.Wal-Mart's corporate objectives are linked to the performance management practices and are measured through sales performance (Thompson, 2016).The importance of performance management as its directly related to maximizing sales revenues, and through its performance management activities, Walmart's human resource management ensures support for sales performance through employee productivity, especially sales personnel productivity (Thompson, 2016).Performance planning in Walmart's HR management involves a performance appraisal system, in which the system provides feedback to employees on their performance levels (Thompson, 2016).In addition to this software, the company also gives feedback to employees on how to improve their performance (Thompson, 2016).Walmart also uses an HR software product that analyzes individual and team performance levels (Thompson, 2016).

Discrimination.As an organization Wal-Mart prides itself as being an equal and fair employer.However, there has been cases of discrimination in the US that have been taken to supreme courts.In Falcon, an employment discrimination class action included some members who were denied promotion allegedly because they were Mexican American, while other members of the class were allegedly denied being hired altogether because of their race (Read, Harding, & Kelly, 2015).Another court case againstWal-Mart was initiated by Dukes where the US Supreme Court denied the certification femaleemployeesofWal-Mart (Waguespack, 2012). The putative class, which filed for damages on sex discrimination claims, had been certified by the US District Court based on commonality, typicality, and adequate representation, in which the Court contended thatWal-Mart'soperations under a general policy of discrimination was not proven by the class representatives (Waguespack, 2012). Although in both these cases, the Supreme court had ruled in favour of Wal-Mart, they still retain ramifications that can affect their sales, reputation and employee retention.

Health and Safety Standards.As a retailer, operating in several different countries, health and safety standards may be different within different borders.Focusing on standards in Canada, there are several standards and regulations that must be met for the interests of consumers and of employees.Some standards that are for the safety of consumers are obtained from the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act Brochurewhich focus' on product safety which is in everyone's interest (RCC, 2016).Under the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act organizations have certain responsibilities as a supplier of consumer products which can be found in the brochure (RCC, 2016).Standards that protect employees include Bill 168: Workplace Violence and Harassment, which as of June 15, 2010, all employers are required to comply with the new requirements under the amendments to theOccupational Health and Safety Act(Bill 168) (RCC, 2016).Workplaces in Ontario that have more than five regularly employed workers will be required to have the necessary policies, programs, measures and procedures in place (RCC, 2016).

How the Issues are Currently Addressed

Setting standards with codes of conducts handed to all employees from the beginning so they are aware of what is needed from them to avoid future conflicts. Wal-Mart has a very thorough training program, that outlines all the duties, and responsibilities of their employees to keep them safe while on the job. At Wal-Mart it is important to ensure that their training programs are effective and to do so, Walmart's HR management uses sales performance as a criterion, the company also uses feedback from supervisors and employees on sales performance (Thompson, 2016).In addition, customer feedback is also used to further add information that Walmart HR managers use to evaluate the success of employee training programs.

Suggestions for Improving the Resolution of the Issues

Wal-Mart is a multinational corporation and as they continue to expand their operations into foreign countries, they are more, likely to face suits from labor groups. The main legal factors that have direct impact to Walmart's operations, are performance evaluations, discrimination, and health and safety standards.All of which can have serious legal ramifications if they are not handled with care and importance.It is essential for Walmart to remain fair, and equal in evaluations, and the hiring processes.Also, keeping up to date with health and safety standards of every operating country will ensure a safe workplace for all employees. As technology advances, and globalization arises even more, standards and regulations will do the same.Therefore, it may beneficial for Walmart to set a division to maintain, keep track, and monitor specific guidelines, regulations, and procedures when it comes to operating for the benefit of all employees.

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