Document officially filed within the United Assembly Records on September 16th, 2014:
CPJ-SIvBW-001-DOn April 12th, the lawsuit was filed with one of Avalia’s state courts.
On April 15th, court proceedings began.
On April 29th, the court ruled in favor of Barbara Wilson, and told Smiles, Inc. to pay Barbara Wilson 24 million Avalian dollars in reparations and back pay.
On May 4th, the 22nd Court of Appeals in the state took up the case after an appeal by Smiles, Inc.
On May 16th, the 22nd Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Smiles, Inc. on the condition that the company undid the termination of Mrs. Wilson’s employment.
On May 28th, a federal Court of Appeals took up the case after an appeal by Barbara Wilson.
On June 20th, the federal Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Barbara Wilson, and ordered that Smiles, Inc. pay Barbara Wilson 142 million Avalian dollars in reparations and back pay, and a total sum of 2.3 billion Avalian dollars in reparations to all of its employees, giving it 12 months to bring the company up to federal standards or it would be shut down.
On July 22nd, the Avalian Supreme Court accepted the case’s appeal by Smiles, Inc.
On September 3rd, the Avalian Supreme Court ruled in favor of Smiles, Inc. 5-4, issuing a 12-page decision and a 31-page dissenting opinion.
On September 16th, the United Assembly Committee to Promote Justice received the case’s appeal by Barbara Wilson.
Barbara Wilson was an employee of Smiles, Inc. from February 6th, 2006 to April 14th, 2014, before she was unjustly terminated from her employment for initiating a lawsuit against Smiles, Inc. She worked in a factory that produced toothpaste and other oral hygiene products. During Mrs. Wilson’s employment, 17 other employees were injured or killed in the factory she worked in. No official reports were filed about these deaths and injuries, despite this being a violation of federal Avalian law. Mrs. Wilson herself lost her right pinky on December 12th, 2009 when she attempted to retrieve a faulty product before it entered an automated sorting machine, and her hand was caught in the machine’s unguarded mechanisms. In response, her supervisor gave Mrs. Wilson the rest of the day off, and she was forced to walk to the nearest hospital, where they amputated the pinky and saved the rest of the hand. No other action was taken by Smiles, Inc. in response to the incident, and there are no official records of its occurrence.
In the time Mrs. Wilson worked, a total of 2,988 days, she earned a total of $140,863. However, one of her male co-workers testified in court that during his employment period of March 11th, 2002 to April 21st, 2014 (the day of his testimony), he earned a total of $214,831. Like Mrs. Wilson, her male co-worker worked on the assembly line, in the same factory, doing the same job. Like Mrs. Wilson, her male co-worker received a high school education, and had no prior experience before he began work at Smiles, Inc. on March 11th, 2002. Her co-worker received better pay despite having no additional qualifications and performing no extra duties. In addition, in the 8 years of Mrs. Wilson’s employment, she did not receive a raise in her pay, not even to adjust for inflation or the cost of living, and she was never promoted.
Additionally, Smiles, Inc. enforces a company policy that employees must purchase all of their oral hygiene products from Smiles, Inc. This violates Mrs. Wilson’s right to spend her money as she chooses, because Smiles, Inc. enforces its policy with the threat of termination. Two witnesses testified before the federal Court of Appeals that they received letters from management informing them that they would be fired if they did not follow the policy. This policy creates a modern-day “company store,” forcing employees to funnel their paycheck back into their employer’s pockets. Additionally, if employees feel that they can find products superior to the ones offered by Smiles, Inc. elsewhere, they are prohibited from doing so.
Smiles, Inc. has a sterling record with regards to the safety of its employees. While it is true that 17 employees were injured in the factory in which Mrs. Wilson worked, some of whom tragically died, those accidents were unavoidable. Additionally, Smiles, Inc. filed company records and federal reports of each and every incident, but the company’s records were destroyed when the management complex caught fire on October 17th, 2013. The federal Avalian government likely lost the reports in transition when the government agency managing them was reshuffled into another one as part of a bureaucratic re-organizing between 2013 and 2014. Smiles, Inc. offers all of its employees a comprehensive health insurance package, which covered Mrs. Wilson’s injury and her stay at the hospital on December 12th, 2009. No other action was necessary.
With regards to the alleged payment discrepancy, the numbers show that Mrs. Wilson was employed roughly two-thirds as long as her male co-worker, henceforth referred to as John Doe. Accordingly, she received roughly two-thirds as much payment for her services during the course of her employment. Additionally, John Doe does not work in the same place on the factory assembly line as Mrs. Wilson did. Whereas Mrs. Wilson was tasked with assuring the quality of the product, Mr. Doe had to oversee the combination of ingredients according to the company’s proprietary formulas. This is a position that required a training course, and as such his salary was adjusted slightly higher because the company had invested in his training. The factory’s supervisor testified on April 22nd, 2014, that no one had received a raise or been promoted ahead of Mrs. Wilson. She was not passed up for promotion, there were no promotions handed down to anyone in her position.
Smiles, Inc. does not enforce a mandatory policy of purchasing oral hygiene products from the company, and has never terminated the employment of a worker for not doing so. Smiles, Inc. offers a 30% employee discount on all its products, because it understands that employees are under an immense financial burden and purchasing dental products is expensive. Employee discounts are not against the law, and it would only hurt employees for its discount program to be suspended.
Multiple character witnesses across several trials testified that Mrs. Wilson was unpleasant to work with, combative, and undisciplined. The factory supervisor testified on April 22nd, 2014, that Mrs. Wilson had been fired because she had yelled at him on the factory floor that he would “get what [he] deserved” and that “you fuckers won’t be getting away with it anymore.” He testified that she had been fired for undermining his authority and being abrasive and uncooperative, and that throughout her employment, she had had a history of this kind of behavior. This frivolous lawsuit is merely the logical conclusion of her feud with her employer.
Smiles, Inc. is an international corporation that complies with laws and regulations across numerous countries, some of which are in direct conflict with each other. The company works as hard as it can to comply with all of them where necessary at all times. In this case, no Avalian law was violated. This legal action is solely the result of Mrs. Wilson’s unfounded grudge against her place of work, which has never treated her with anything but respect. Smiles, Inc. is a family, and it is a mantra within the company that all of its employees are “in this together.” Its company policies are designed with the well-being and happiness of its workers in mind. Employees in Smiles, Inc. are rewarded for the quality of their work, and Mrs. Wilson’s work was not high enough quality to be rewarded. As a result, she has chosen to claim that she was discriminated against, when in reality all of Smiles, Inc.’s employees are treated equally. Mrs. Wilson desires to sink the company that employed her for eight years in a misguided act of revenge, nothing more.
It is clear from the defense’s argument that they seek to slander Mrs. Wilson to avoid culpability for Smiles, Inc.’s wrongdoings. Regardless of Mrs. Wilson’s character, the lawsuit was filed because Smiles, Inc. had violated the law and discriminated against her, and operated an employee culture of corporate oppression which after eight years Mrs. Wilson could no longer stand.
In addition to failing to call an ambulance, notify the police, file a report with the federal government, or even escort her to the hospital, with regards to Mrs. Wilson’s injury, the company did not even fully cover the cost of her treatment. She was billed $97,320 for her medical treatment, and Smiles, Inc.’s health insurance policy only covered half the cost. After forcing her to foot the rest of the bill, the company quietly swept the incident under the rug.
Smiles, Inc.’s employees are massively underpaid for their work, especially considering the physical danger it places them in, and the fact that Smiles, Inc.’s factories are not up to federal safety standards. This, in combination with their terrible benefits, and the company’s mandatory policy forcing employees to give part of their paycheck back to Smiles, Inc., does not add up to an employee culture that is “in this together.” Smiles, Inc.’s CEO is certainly not in this together with Mrs. Wilson, considering that he makes roughly 325 times as much as she did. Mrs. Wilson filed her lawsuit out of genuine concern for her fellow employees and a desire to seek recompense for how the company had wronged her over her eight years of employment.
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Topic: The United Assembly - Delegating Global Progress [4/12] (Read 17251 times)