OSHA Opens Investigation into Wal-Mart Whistleblower's Claims

By Aaron Poehler

Published on November 12, 2007

In 2006, Lowry, then an administrative assistant in Wal-Mart's communications department, suspected Mona Williams, Wal-Mart's vice-president for corporate communications, was engaging in insider trading and filed a complaint with the company's ethics department. Although Williams was cleared of the allegations, Wal-Mart released Lowry's name to Williams, exposing her to retaliatory treatment. Lowry subsequently requested to be transferred to another position within the company not under Williams, but Wal-Mart refused to guarantee her a new job and gave her 60-90 days before her current employment would be terminated, forcing her to apply to dozens of positions before eventually securing a position within the company's human resources department.

Although Lowry was not demoted and suffered no loss of wages, she says Wal-Mart's behavior in the wake of the incident helped contribute to the breakup of her marriage and her development of stress-induced angina. In response, Wal-Mart has claimed that Lowry agreed to the release of her name despite Lowry's claims that she was not given a choice, and that the decision to move Lowry out of the communications department was made based solely on her request.

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