TAMPA, Fla. -- A Tampa-area Wal-Mart manager who called sheriff's deputies to apprehend a black businessman over a check he found questionable was fired for using "poor judgment," but did not engage in racial profiling, the retail chain said Tuesday.
An internal investigation of the Nov. 23 incident at a Wal-Mart supercenter in Brandon found that the manager, Mark Cornett, violated company procedures when he called the law on Reginald Pitts who presented a $13,600 check to pay for holiday gift cards for his company's employees, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman said.
But Pitts, a 34-year-old human resources manager for GAF Materials Corp., suspects he was singled out because he is black, and he's considering a lawsuit. The incident made national news and generated more bad publicity for the retail giant, which has drawn criticism and been sued over issues ranging from employee relations to its aggressive expansion into small communities.
Sarah Clark, a spokeswoman for the Bentonville, Ark.-based company, said Cornett followed proper procedures in trying to verify Pitts' check, which he could not because a privacy block prohibited access to GAF's bank account.
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/money/5533074/detail.html?rss=den&psp=money
If it so easy to fire this manager, why can't they do the same to the pharmacist who won't fill BC prescriptions?
An internal investigation of the Nov. 23 incident at a Wal-Mart supercenter in Brandon found that the manager, Mark Cornett, violated company procedures when he called the law on Reginald Pitts who presented a $13,600 check to pay for holiday gift cards for his company's employees, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman said.
But Pitts, a 34-year-old human resources manager for GAF Materials Corp., suspects he was singled out because he is black, and he's considering a lawsuit. The incident made national news and generated more bad publicity for the retail giant, which has drawn criticism and been sued over issues ranging from employee relations to its aggressive expansion into small communities.
Sarah Clark, a spokeswoman for the Bentonville, Ark.-based company, said Cornett followed proper procedures in trying to verify Pitts' check, which he could not because a privacy block prohibited access to GAF's bank account.
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/money/5533074/detail.html?rss=den&psp=money
If it so easy to fire this manager, why can't they do the same to the pharmacist who won't fill BC prescriptions?
