Exhibit A Proposal: RESOLVED, that the shareholders of Walmart Inc. (“Walmart” or the “Company”) hereby request that the Walmart Board of Directors (the “Board”) prepare a report, at reasonable cost and omitting proprietary information, on Walmart’s human rights due diligence (“HRDD”) process to identify, assess, prevent and mitigate actual and potential adverse human rights impacts in its domestic and foreign operations and supply chains. Supporting Statement: As outlined by the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, we recommend the report identify: • • • •
The human rights principles used to frame its risk assessments; The human rights impacts of Walmart’s business activities, including domestic and foreign operations and supply chains; The types and extent of stakeholder consultation; and The Company’s plans to track effectiveness of measures to assess, prevent, mitigate, and remedy adverse human rights impacts.
We strongly believe that HRDD reduces long-term risks for the Company and its stakeholders. Companies that proactively identify and mitigate human rights abuses may better avoid costly backlash from communities, customers, and government regulators. For leading retailers like Walmart, this creates an imperative not to cause or contribute to abuses within their own operations or supply chains. As one of the largest employers in the United States, Walmart’s business practices and relationships with suppliers operating in high-risk sectors could expose the Company and its investors to legal, reputational, financial and human capital risk. Increased public scrutiny on employers whose employees rely heavily on public assistance, 1 and on industries heavily affected by COVID-19 or reliant upon high-risk suppliers magnifies these risks. The New York Times reported on alarming working conditions for Walmart’s U.S. workers during the pandemic2 and accusations that Walmart punished workers for using sick time.3 The Company was sued for alleged failure to accommodate pregnant employees; while the lawsuit was dismissed, it seemingly pressured Congress to intervene.4 A book profiling Walmart notes that in 2022, at least half of Walmart’s hourly workers earn under $29,000 annually, 5 insufficient wages for a basic standard of living. Responsible companies must strive to identify, remedy and prevent poor labor practices to mitigate these reputational and legal risks.
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https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-21-45.pdf https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/27/business/walmart-coronavirus-workers-safety.html 3 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/01/business/walmart-workers-sick-days.html 4 https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/walmart-pregnancy-accommodation-ruling-puts-pressureon-congress 5 Rick Wartzman, Still Broke: Walmart’s Remarkable Transformation and the Limits of Socially Conscious Capitalism (New York: PublicAffairs, 2022), 219. 2