The Antelope Valley Times

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Employee suing Walmart for gender harassment, discrimination

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LOS ANGELES – Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is being sued by an employee who claims he took a demotion from his assistant manager position and transferred from one Palmdale store to another to get away from a female boss who told him that women were much better managers.

Jon Wunderlin’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit against the store chain and the former supervisor, Heather Rodriguez, alleges gender harassment and discrimination, failure to prevent discrimination, fraud and deceit and negligent infliction of emotional distress.

Wunderlin, who’s seeking unspecified damages, also alleges Wal-Mart has used his managerial designation to deny him overtime, even though less than half of his work hours are spent on administrative duties.

A Wal-Mart representative could not be immediately reached for comment on the suit filed Wednesday, Nov. 28.

Wunderlin says he was hired by Wal-Mart in May 2010 and began working as an assistant manager at one of the company’s Palmdale stores two months later. From June 2015 until March 2016, Rodriguez told Wunderlin about 10 times that he “didn’t stack up against the women working with him” and “that the women were so much better managers than he,” his lawsuit alleges.

Rodriguez also allegedly told Wunderlin at least 10 other times that “woman power is my goal here at Wal-Mart, so suck it up,” and three to five times said that he “did not know what he was doing while doing his job,” the suit states. She accused him on three occasions of lying, an allegation she never made against female employees, according to the complaint.

Wunderlin transferred to the other Palmdale store in March 2016 and took a demotion to avoid further alleged mistreatment by Rodriguez, according to the suit, which alleges Wal-Mart failed to properly supervise Rodriguez and stop her harassment and discriminatory behavior toward the plaintiff.

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Filed Under: Business, Palmdale

33 comments for "Employee suing Walmart for gender harassment, discrimination"

  2. He left out the part where he was fired from valley central way store for sexually harassing female employees in front of customers what a joke

  3. First things first… I’m the realest!

    Now that we got that out of the way. I personally think those two employees didn’t get along, one could have said some inappropriate comments while the other one was plotting a lawsuit.
    Either way, grow up!!!

    • I know header, she was ivernight assistant manager when I worked at porter ranch walmart, she was a person who abused her position, fired many employees unfairly

  4. Walmart employs 815,000 women — 57 percent of its U.S. workforce — and has a history of unfair treatment of these female employees: they are often underpaid, underrepresented and given few opportunities for advancement. Although women make up the majority of Walmart workers, most of them occupy low-wage positions and few are in management roles. In 2010, most Walmart managers were men.

    Many female Walmart employees have been paid less than male coworkers. In 2001, female workers earned $5,200 less per year on average than male workers. The company paid those who had hourly jobs, where the average yearly earnings were $18,000, $1.16 less per hour ($1,100 less per year) than men in the same position. Female employees who held salaried positions with average yearly earnings of $50,000 were paid $14,500 less per year than men in the same position. Despite this gap in wages, female Walmart employees on average have longer tenure and higher performance ratings.

  5. Walmart, quit complaining. I’m forking out $90 grand a month to keep the LEAPS plane flying high in the sky to capture Walmart shoplifters. We nabbed two in four years and we’ll get more.

    Man I love these Laguna sunsets. Another round of margaritas!

  6. What a convoluted mess! He can’t make up his mind whether he’s being harassed because of gender, or whether Wal-Mart used his managerial designation to deny him overtime. She accused him on three occasions of lying, an allegation she never made against female employees. Wow, really! What were those three occasions? Not one or four, but three.

  7. There is no factual evidence that she even said these remarks, this is totally bogus coming from this guy. I’m sure she did nothing of what was allegedly said.

    • I posted a pretty long analysis, but it hasn’t cleared the moderator.

      The gist is that most of the things she allegedly said aren’t even relevant to the suit anyway, and I think all that stuff is thrown in to draw attention away from the fact that proving the one actually discriminatory statement was ever made is very unlikely.

    • I would not jump to conclusions, if you have never had a bad boss or manager then you are lucky, I have had plenty. I have had quite a few bosses who were human garbage….

      • I don’t think anyone is saying she is the world’s greatest manager…though it looks like some of the commenters have worked under her and they are saying nice things. The issue is that a “bad boss” isn’t really a legitimate target for a discrimination lawsuit.

        The lawsuit lists ONE discriminatory comment among a bunch that might be “bad boss” material but are NOT discriminatory. It doesn’t provide any evidence other than the plaintiff’s claim that any of the comments were actually said. There may be a strategy in play, where the attorney will present a bunch of third party testimony to support that the “bad boss” comments actually were made, and try to expand that to “if she did say that then believe the plaintiff that she also said this.” That’s a narrow path.

        Unless some third party agrees that she said the thing about ‘woman power is my goal,’ which is the only discriminatory thing they are even claiming that she said, there isn’t a lot to defending this case.

      • Because he’s a racist like D’ump. Anyone who might have done anything wrong “must be an illegal.” It doesn’t make a lick of sense, but stupid is as stupid elects.

      • @AV Racist Tweaker

        All the Mexicans and anyone else you don’t like could leave the country and I GUARANTEE you that you will still be unhappy and complaining non-stop about something else. You’ll find something or someone.

        Isn’t that correct? You’ve gotten rid of people in your life, maybe a friend, relative, neighbor, co-worker or whomever and you’ll still not HAPPY.

        It’s you, You, YOU. it’s always you that is the source of your own misery. No one else.

        You might finally realize that on your deathbed or you could get it right now. Take your pick.

        I don’t care. I’ve gone through that myself and let go of disliking people and I’m about the happiest person I know.

        Mexicans or whoever go about their lives and their work or whatever and they don’t care if you dislike them. It’s killing you, however.

          • @MST3K

            You’re probably right. But, it would be more useful if your reply was more specific.

            practice: verb
            1.perform (an activity) or exercise (a skill) repeatedly or regularly in order to improve or maintain one’s proficiency:

            Did I say I disliked AV Racist Tweaker? Or, did you just assume that?

            Am I perfect after practicing? No. Is anyone? Did you happen to read my apology to Shane Falco on these very same pages in the AV Times? I actually am ‘practicing’.

        • After reading the ugly comments between Tim and Tweaker, I have seen the error of my ways. Yes, I have been guilty of showing the worst part of me by also using words that devolve into name calling and insults. A flaw I need to work on to become a better human being.

        • @Alexis (I hope you are the real Alexis and that someone hasn’t hijacked your username) Actually, this is for you regardless.

          I apologized to Shane Falco for my comments and I’m apologizing to you as well. I haven’t responded to you in a while with an argument.

          I used to use a sledgehammer on people I thought were hypocrites but now I prefer a lighter touch with a scalpel and humor.

          It’s more fun yet still communicates.

          William

          BTW My former wife and my niece share your name and I love them both so it’s been uncomfortable to argue with someone with that name.

  10. All I know is, if you shoplift at Walmart, you might get caughted by LEAPS. At $90 grand a month, it has nailed at least two Walmart shoplifters. Roll, LEAPS, roll. Shout out to by main man Frankie. Caching!!!!!!!!

  11. I saw her telling a male employee that he wasn’t as good as the female receipt checkers. She also claimed to be a lesbian. She said she wasn’t straight.

    • That isn’t discriminatory. I can say “Bob is an idiot compared to other commenters.” That isn’t discriminatory against Bobs, it’s just an observation about Bob. Now, if I said “I knew Bob was an idiot because Bobs always are,” that would be discriminatory against Bobs.

      If she said “you aren’t as good as a female checker” that could be, but if she said “you aren’t as good as Mary, or Suzy, or Denise, or any of the women” that’s just letting him know he is the least skilled employee…with the possible exception of Bob, if he works there.

  12. The ONLY alleged statement that is even a problem is this one: “woman power is my goal here at Wal-Mart, so suck it up.” If he can prove that she said that repeatedly WalMart has a problem, but it is most unlikely that he can prove it. I suspect that is why the suit is so full of red herrings.

    These statements: “didn’t stack up against the women working with him” and “that the women were so much better managers than he” are direct comparisons to specific coworkers. They aren’t gender based at all and are frivolous to the case. “That woman is a better manager than you” is only a gender based statement if the person adds “because she is a woman.” Otherwise it is just a statement of their opinion. She is better at the job than you are.

    Even more obviously, “did not know what he was doing while doing his job” has nothing at all to do with gender. It may not be the most effective way to motivate an employee you are supervising, but it isn’t uncommon and doesn’t even reference gender at all.

    Looks like a very desperate attorney trying to convince their client that they have a case…probably to collect their fee. That’s probably why they notified the media. Trying to draw enough publicity that WalMart pays a little “no wrongdoing admitted” settlement just to make them go away.

  13. Sorry to see this happened but there’s no way Heather would say this she’s a nice kind person but who knows what happened behind close doors.. And why is Jon bringing this up way after he was demoted? She doesn’t work at any Palmdale locations

    • Isn’t this an odd thing for Walmart 1660 to say is this corporate or just some one claiming the name 1660? Seems like corporate would word their statement a little better and more professional. This comment seems more like an opinion and less of a representation of a corporate company to me.

  15. That guy a tool, he was apart of the management team at 1660 that woud constantly harass low level employees with no other options than to work at walmart, so fear of not having a job would keep them in line and keep them from making reports.