Category: Low Rate

Wal-Mart to stop extra $1 Sunday pay for employees

Vittorio Hernandez – AHN News News Writer

Bentonville, Arkansas, United States (AHN) – Wal-Mart Stores announced Wednesday that it will no longer pay its employees who work Sundays an additional $1 an hour. The new policy, however, would only cover workers hired after Jan. 1, 2011.

Current U.S. employees numbering 1.4 million will not be affected by the new policy, a Wal-Mart spokesman said.

The policy will also not apply to workers in Wal-Mart’s 49 Massachusetts and 10 Rhode Island outlets because the employees in the two states were not extended the extra $1 Sunday pay since their hourly rate for Sunday work is 1.5 times based on state labor regulations.

The policy is part of Chief Executive Officer Mike Duke’s strategy to reduce cost after Wal-Mart registered six consecutive quarters of sales declines at its U.S. operations.

On top of lower sales, operating expenses went up in 2009 to about $80 billion partly due to health benefits extended to workers.

To offset revenue reduction in its U.S. operations, Wal-Mart offered in November $2.4 billion to acquire a majority share in Massmart, a South African retail chain.

Wal-Mart is expanding its international business, particularly in emerging markets with high growth potentials.

Wal-Mart got the unanimous vote of the Massmart board, but needs the approval also of the South African regulators and 75 percent of Massmart stockholders.

The South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union expressed concern with the possible Wal-Mart buy-in because of the U.S. retail giant’s stand against unions.

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Survey: Companies giving more parties and holiday perks this season

Ayinde O. Chase – AHN News Editor

Chicago, IL, United States (AHN) – The economic grip which had been strangling most offices during the holiday season appears to be loosening its stronghold on holiday cheer in the office. According to a recent survey employers indicate they intend to offer more holiday perks (bonuses, parties, gifts) than last year.

According to a CareerBuilder survey 33 percent of employers plan to give their employees holiday bonuses this year, up from 29 percent in 2009. Among that group, 59 percent are planning to give the same amount as in previous years.

However, nine percent of employers say they will not be giving their workforce holiday bonuses even though they have in previous years, down from 12 percent last year.

In regards to the highly desired office parties 52 percent of employers are planning on throwing some type of holiday bash for their employees this year. Up a few points from 2009′s 49 percent.

Nearly three-in-ten (29 percent) employers plan to give holiday gifts, up from 26 percent in 2009.

“Many employers are financially in a better place this season and recognize the positive impact holiday perks can have on office morale,” said Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources for CareerBuilder. “Companies are not only giving back to employees this holiday season, 45 percent say their charitable donations will be the same or more than previous years.”

Holiday perks in the office aren’t just from corporate; a quarter of workers say they plan to buy holiday gifts for co-workers this year, compared to 22 percent who plan to buy their boss a gift.

86 percent of workers buying gifts say they plan to spend $25 or less on average for each holiday gift they buy for the office.

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Burger King Announces Hundreds of Layoffs

Ayinde O. Chase – AHN News Editor

Miami, FL, United States (AHN) – Hundreds of Burger King Corp. employees were blind sided with layoff notices on Monday. The company reduced its personnel by 413 positions in North America and Latin America.

Many of the laid-off employees came from its South Florida headquarters, where 261 people were released.

Police and medical personnel were on hand Monday should the news be too much for any of the terminated employees.

The number two fast food giant was recently sold to 3G Capital of Brazil in a $3.25 billion deal. The layoffs are being touted as part of the company’s organizational restructuring.

Burger King has more than 12,200 restaurants in more than 73 countries. Nearly 90 percent are privately owned and operated franchises.

The layoffs represent a nearly 9 percent reduction of the company’s South Florida employee base. Despite the cuts, the company will maintain its headquarters in Miami.

The company famously known for its Whopper sandwich was started in Florida 50 years ago.

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McGuinty, Ford Hold First One-on-One Meeting

AHN News Staff

Toronto, Ontario, Canada (AHN) – Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and new Toronto Mayor Rob Ford will hold their first one-on-meeting Tuesday. On top of their agenda is the Transit City, which Ford had vowed to halt.

During the campaign Ford expressed his disagreement with above-ground subway lines that slow down vehicular traffic. He instead pushed for an alternative that would extend the Sheppard subway to Scarborough Town Center and convert the Scarborough Light Rail Transit to a subway.

Ontario has spent so far $130 million on Transit City and inked deals worth $1.3 billion. Ford said he would ask McGuinty to divert the $3.1 billion allocated for the first phase of Transit city to the subway alternative.

The mayor is also expected to seek Ontario’s assistance in declaring the Toronto Transit Commission an essential service, which would make strikes illegal. However, Ford is expected to be opposed by TTC unions.

Ford placed the matter on the agenda of his first council meeting on Dec. 16. A tight vote is expected, with Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday reported to likely break party ranks and vote for non-declaration.

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Supreme Court to Rule on Class Action by Female Wal-Mart Employees

Tom Ramstack – AHN News Correspondent

Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear a sex discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart that claims billions of dollars of back pay and damages on behalf of female employees.

The lawsuit joins the claims of 1.5 million women who worked at the retail giant in the past decade, making it the biggest employment-related class action in U.S. history.

The women say they were paid at lower rates than men and often were denied promotions.

Wal-Mart argues the lawsuits cannot be combined into a class action because personnel decisions are made at each of its 3,400 stores, meaning there was no centralized pattern of gender-based bias.

The significance of the class action status could reach far beyond Wal-Mart.

A single lawsuit representing hundreds to thousands of employees could drive up the amount of damages employers must pay, according to legal analysts. As a result, corporations would be more likely to settle lawsuits with large payments rather than letting juries decide.

“The current confusion in class-action law is harmful for everyone – employers, employees, businesses of all types and sizes and the civil justice system. These are exceedingly important issues that reach far beyond this particular case,” Wal-Mart said in a statement Monday.

The Supreme Court, which plans to hear oral arguments in the case in the spring, will decide whether the women’s lawsuits can be consolidated into a class action but will not rule on whether they were treated unfairly as employees.

A brief filed by attorneys for the female employees denies that Wal-Mart leaves all its personnel decisions to individual store managers.

“The class is large because Wal-Mart is the nation’s largest employer and manages its operations and employment practices in a highly uniform and centralized manner,” the brief says.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco already has ruled the women’s lawsuits could be a class action. Wal-Mart appealed to the Supreme Court.

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NFL Players Association Looks Into Possible Collusion By League

Kareem Shaker – AHN Sports Reporter

NY, NY, United States (AHN) – The National Football League Players Association is preparing to file a collusion case against the league’s owners reportedly because only one of 216 restricted free agents was signed to an offer sheet during the offseason.

Executive director DeMaurice Smith is in the process of reviewing the case for filing by Special Master Stephen Burbank in time for Wednesday’s Dec. 8 deadline, 90 days from the regular season opener.

The union gathered very similar dialogue from a variety of teams communicating with agents who represented the players, a source told ESPN’s Chris Mortensen.

Jeff Pash, the NFL’s vice president of legal counsel, previously blamed the lack of activity on the looming uncapped year.

However, in 2009, only four of 55 restricted free agents were signed to offer sheets with no one changing teams.

The current CBA expires March 4, with both sides remaining hopeful a work stoppage could be avoided. Owners and team executives meet Dec. 15 in Fort Worth, Texas, to discuss labor matters.

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Food Supplier Nash Finch Sued For Sex Discrimination

Linda Young – AHN News Writer

Lumberton, NC, United States (AHN) – The U.S. Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs has filed an administrative complaint against a North Carolina company, Nash Finch Co., with systematic job discrimination against 80 women.

Minneapolis, MN-based Nash Finch is the second-largest publicly traded wholesale food distributor in the U.S. It has contracts with the federal government to provide goods and services to more than 200 military bases in the U.S. and overseas.

OFCCP charges that Nash Finch discriminated against 80 qualified women who had applied for positions as order selectors at the Lumberton, NC, plant. Order selectors pull stock from warehouse shelves to fill orders.

In monitoring files, the OFCCP found that the company hired 6 percent of qualified female applicants versus 26 percent of qualified male applicants.

Moreover, this was not the first instance of discrimination that the OFCCP found at a Nash Finch facility, according to the complaint.

Previous investigations at Nash Finch facilities in Norfolk, VA, St. Cloud, MN, and Omaha, NE, have found violations of the law and discrimination in the company’s policies and procedures that “created an uneven playing field for women, minorities and veterans seeking employment with the company,” according to an OFCCP statement.

“It is unacceptable that a company which profits from lucrative federal contracts would repeatedly violate the law in this manner,” said OFCCP Director Patricia A. Shiu. “Nash Finch has demonstrated an unfortunate pattern and practice of hiring discrimination, and the American taxpayers should not have to bankroll this company’s bad behavior anymore.”

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U.S. Unemployment Compensation Claims Rise Again

Linda Young – AHN News Writer

Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – Initial jobless claims rose again last week after falling to the lowest levels in two years the week before, according to the United States Department of Labor.

The advance figures for seasonally adjusted initial claims for the week ending Nov. 27 was 436,000, an increase of 26,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 410,000. Most analysts were only expecting 422,000 new claims.

Most economists say that initial jobless claims must fall below 40,000 weekly before the current 9.6 percent unemployment rate will fall much.

Although nearly 40 percent of working-age Americans are unemployed, only 3.4 percent of jobless workers qualify for unemployment compensation benefits, according to the DOL.

Nationwide, 8,909,882 people claimed jobless benefits for the week ending Nov. 13, the latest week for which those figures are available.

States with the highest insured unemployment rates for the week ending Nov. 13 were Alaska (6.3 percent), Oregon (4.6), Pennsylvania (4.2), California (4.1), New Jersey (4.0), Nevada (3.9), Arkansas (3.6), Connecticut (3.6), Illinois (3.6), and Montana (3.6).

Extended unemployment benefits were available in the District of Columbia and 35 states.

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Report: Canada’s Stimulus Program Failed To Create Many Jobs

AHN News Staff

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (AHN) – An assessment of Canada’s $4 billion infrastructure stimulus program by Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page found that the program failed to create as many jobs as it envisioned.

The assessment was based on a survey of institutions that received the stimulus money made by Phoenix Strategic Perspectives. Page commissioned the survey.

While the survey found that respondents viewed the programs as well run, only 33.3 percent of the respondents believed that the stimulus fund had a positive impact on reducing unemployment. Those who had a neutral view of the fund’s impact on employment comprised 43.3 percent and those who expressed a negative view made up 20.6 percent.

However, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper refuted Page’s data. The prime minister said that 430,000 more Canadians have work now compared to 18 months ago. The Canadian Federation of Municipalities also debunked the report, saying that 11,000 jobs are created for every $1 billion spent on infrastructure projects.

The PBO report received 644 responses out of 1,129 organizations surveyed.

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China’s Manufacturing, Service Industries Experience Labor Shortages

Lawrence Mijares – AHN News Contributor

Shanghai, China (AHN) – Some Chinese factories and other service establishments are experiencing a serious shortage of labor due to the high cost of living and an unchanged salary base.

Manufacturing hubs in the Yangtze and Pearl River deltas that surround the city of Shanghai and Guangzhou province are experiencing an acute shortage of migrant workers in their respective home and customer service sectors.

The labor shortage, which has already affected several companies’ expansion plans, occurred in the busiest season of the year–Christmas and New Year. Manufacturing firms were forced to decline orders because of the worker shortfall that is estimated to be more than 900,000 in Guagdong province.

On average, 40 percent of job vacancies in the Yangtze and Peal River Delta areas remain unfilled.

Stagnant salaries and the steadily increasing high cost of living have been blamed for the crisis. This has caused workers to remain in their hometowns where, although they earn little, they do not have to spend as much on living costs.

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