Walmart is getting rid of greeters; disabled workers worried

You know those friendly faces in blue vests that greet you when you walk into Walmart? The company recently announced they will be eliminating that greeter role in some of its stores.

Walmart says the greeter role will soon be replaced by what’s called the customer host role in some of its stores, and in a nutshell, the new position will expand on an employee’s physical responsibilities, and most of the Walmart greeters you may have seen in stores have some sort of disability.

FOX 26 News spoke with one woman who is currently working at a Houston-area Walmart as a greeter. She says she has a physical disability now, having to switch between a walker and a wheelchair after she had a brain tumor.

The woman did not want to have her face or name identified, but says she received a notice of the company’s policy changes to her position. She says the additional duties of being able to pick up 25 pounds or more and standing for long periods of time just don’t work for many of those who live with physical disabilities.

Unfortunately, the criteria that with these new company policies was such that none of the handicapped door greeters, which everyone that is a door greeter is pretty much a handicapped person, could meet, so they informed us that our last day of service would be April 26. 

FOX 26 did reach out to Walmart and a representative there tells us that they recognize this new customer host role may pose some issues with those with disabilities, but they say they are planning on working with those employees on the current 60-day transition period, in hopes they can find another role or position within the store that accommodates their disability.

The employee told FOX 26 that any other positions could not be filled by disabled people.