Clarkston’s Kathy Paul was hurt by corporate America. Now she is working hard to make sure it doesn’t happen to anybody else.
Back in 1996, Paul was a co-buyer in the electronics department for Kmart. She was a longtime loyal employee and a self-described, “straight arrow.”
Her life changed when she was approached by agents from Kroll Associates, which is a New York based corporate intelligence and investigations firm. The firm, which had been brought in by Kmart, wanted Paul to serve as an informant to clean up the buyer culture which included the taking of bribes.
“I had my concerns about the culture so I was glad to hear they were attempting to do something,” Paul said. “But I was concerned about receiving backlash for helping them.”
Paul says she was assured by Kroll that they had spoken with Kmart’s executive vice president and general counsel Anthony Palizzi who assured them the undercover work would not be held against her.
Paul cooperated fully with Kroll and kept a diary for four months documenting the information she had discovered. One such discovery took place on a trip to the Annual Comdex tradeshow in Las Vegas when, according to Paul, a vendor gave her and a colleague gambling chips.
On Jan. 3, 1997 Kroll told her the job was complete and the informant role ended.
However as Paul attempted to get back to normal, her worst fears began to be realized. She found out her divisional vice president knew of her relationship with Kroll.
“There began to be a change in the attitudes towards me. It was an unwelcome change,” Paul said.
Paul says she spoke with Kroll agents about the situation and they stated they would talk with Kmart executives on her behalf.
However, things did not improve and Paul was transferred from the popular home electronics to women’s wear. Shortly afterwards, Paul received her worst evaluation ever at Kmart.
“All my numbers were surpassing the goals so the evaluation was purely subjective,” Paul said. “They asked me to take part in the investigation. It was not like I was reporting something.”
The added stress deeply affected Paul’s life in the forms of gained weight and health issues. After the review, Paul went on medical leave then disability. At her doctor’s insistence Paul did not return to work, and shortly afterwards she was terminated.
Paul currently works jobs through a temp service and is provided no health insurance.
Paul sued Kmart but the case was thrown out because she could not receive whistle blower status since she was not reporting to a public body like the law states. The fraud and false promise claims were also dropped since they came from Kroll employees and not Kmart employees.
“What they did to me was not right. They have hurt me and Kmart has hurt a lot of other people. I am definitely planning on appealing the case,” Paul said.
In the meantime, she is working with legislators to attempt to create a new law that would give people in Paul’s position some legal backing. She met with State Representative John Stakoe during his monthly Clarkston office hours last Friday morning.
“Obviously this is a serious issue. I want to expand the rights of the individual and clean this up,” Stakoe said. “People like Paul should not need to suffer these consequences because obviously that is not acceptable.”
The prospective bill is in its infancy with Stakoe just recently submitting a legal request. The bill still needs to be drafted and worked through committee.
“I hope there will be support for this. I think there will. We have a good balance in Lansing of wanting to look out for business concerns but also looking at issues involving the employees,” Stakoe said.
Paul is grateful for the help she has received from Stakoe and other legislators. She has also been aided by Ruth Johnson, Mike Bishop and Carl Levin.
“Everyone has been pretty helpful. I want to make sure this doesn’t happen to anybody else and I want to make people aware of what happened to me,” Paul said. “If I was Kmart I would settle because I am not going away.”