- Tony DeNunzio, the outgoing CEO of Wal-Mart’s Asda Group in the UK, reportedly has criticized the British government for making antitrust rulings that have helped Tesco grow its market dominance.
"The handling of Morrisons' acquisition of Safeway and the disposal of surplus stores has in fact strengthened Tesco's monopoly," said DeNunzio, according to .
And, he said, "The planning and competition restrictions in the UK have stopped us growing as fast as we would like."
- Reports in the German media suggest that Wal-Mart, already suffering through image and sales problems in Germany, has compounded its difficulties there by issuing to employees a code of ethics that must be followed. Mistakes, the company says, can result in termination.
The Financial Times Deutschland reports that “the code forbids Wal-Mart employees from accepting presents from suppliers, dictates that employees may not fall in love with a colleague in a position of influence and requires workers to report colleagues immediately "if they observe that they have broken the rules."
Dissenting employees say that the code – which was handed out with February paychecks - interferes with their private lives and even forces them to spy and inform on colleagues. They also say they will fight enforcement of the code in the German courts.
Wal-Mart’s German management says that the code was instituted there under pressure from US management.
- The Los Angeles Times reports that federal appeals court has ruled that Wal-Mart violated US labor law when it disciplined an employee in one of its Oklahoma stores who wore a union t-shirt to work and told co-workers about an upcoming unionization meeting.
“Wal-Mart failed to demonstrate how the T-shirt interfered in any manner with the operation of the store," the court said in its ruling.
However, the court also ruled that Wal-Mart was within its rights to discipline the employee for asking a fellow employee to sign a union card while at work.
