The Racquette

Issue date: 2/5/10 Section: News

Media Credit: Chris Evans: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisevans

Last week, Wal-Mart announced that it would be laying off over 10,000 workers from its Sam's Club stores. Reports of the final number differ, but it appears to be between 18-20 employees per store, mostly product demonstration and membership recruitment associates.

Interestingly, Wal-Mart has announced that it will still be utilizing product demonstrations, but will be outsourcing those jobs to Shopper Events LLC, a company that appears to have little identity beyond its contract with Wal-Mart. It has been suggested that employees affected by this layoff consider applying for a similar job at Shopper Events LLC. There is some concern that this may have been a tactic to reset seniority and pay scales.

Employees were offered severance packages, but Taylor Leake at the Huffington Post claims that Wal-Mart required "that laid off workers waive their right to sue for discrimination as a condition of receiving their severance pay. According to workers who contacted us, they were asked to sign a waiver promising not to sue Walmart for gender, racial or age discrimination."

In addition, there are rumors that Wal-Mart is planning another round of management layoffs, distributing tasks to lower level managers in an effort to cut costs.

Several of the students on this campus work for Wal-Mart, most shop at Wal-Mart with relative frequency, and almost all will be seeking jobs at some point in the near future. In light of this, it may be advisable to keep a watchful eye on this situation; though one round of layoffs in this economic climate is certainly not an indicator of a crisis, Wal-Mart is often cited as the largest private employer in the United States. Their financial fortunes have an impact upon us all, whether we like it or not.

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