Walmart Fires Disabled Employee; Cites Absence Policy

BONNEY LAKE, WA - A disabled Bonney Lake woman says Walmart fired her because transportation issues caused her to be late to her shifts too many times. Walmart maintains the former door greeter understood the company's absence policy and simply failed to comply.

Brandi Hanvold this week spoke to KIRO7 in Seattle and explained her situation.

Hanvold for nearly 30 years has lived with a traumatic brain injury she sustained in 1991, when she was ejected roughly 100 feet from her vehicle in a crash, KIRO7 reported. But reportedly through therapy and sheer will, Hanvold made herself employable again, finding work as a door greeter at the Bonney Lake Walmart nearly 11 years ago.

"It's my social life," she told KIRO7. "Makes me feel good, like I have a purpose."

Walmart often hires seniors and folks with disabilities to work the doors and greet incoming customers.

Relying on her motorized wheelchair and rides from Beyond the Borders, a free transportation service for seniors 65 and older, people with disabilities, youth 12 to 17 years old, and — circumstantially — people with low incomes, Hanvold got herself to work faithfully for more than a decade, though occasional transportation issues caused her to be late.

Operating in rural Pierce County as well as it can with limited funding, Beyond the Borders serves folks in Bonney Lake, Buckley, Burnett, Carbonado, Cascade Junction, Eatonville, Frederickson, Graham, Kapowsin, Lake Tapps, McKenna, Orting, Prairie Ridge, Roy, South Hill, South Prairie, Spanaway, Sumner and Wilkeson.

According to Hanvold, Walmart was aware of her disability and transportation challenges. Her bosses even knew she sometimes had to use her wheelchair to travel miles to work, at times in inclement weather, she said. But Walmart nevertheless upheld its policy that no employee could accrue more than nine absences over six months, KIRO7 reported, noting Hanvold has 15.

"So this is what I get after 11 years of loyalty," Hanvold reportedly told her Walmart managers after her dismissal, adding, "I felt like I had no hope."

Hanvold said she felt empty when she was fired and is now doing her best just to survive.

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See the full report from KIRO7 below:

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