Former NJ Walmart worker sues, says she was fired for reporting social distancing violations

A former employee at the Walmart store in Garfield says she lost her job after calling police in May to report that the store had exceeded capacity limits set due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Ejonte Gilyard, who served as a customer service manager, is suing the store for retaliation and demanding back pay, benefits and other compensatory damages.

The 27-year-old Passaic woman accused the Walmart of flouting its own corporate policy of limiting shoppers to roughly 20% of a store’s capacity due to the pandemic, according to the complaint filed last week in state Superior Court.

The policy, implemented in the spring near the height of New Jersey’s coronavirus outbreak, allegedly required that door hosts keep a running count of customers who entered.

But on May 2, when the store should have been limited to 428 people at a time,  Read More