Walmart Layoffs, Relocations and Employee Action

As an employee lawyer who looks at aspects of employment arrangements and employee layoffs from an angle that most other lawyers would appear to either overlook or not be interested in investigating, the recent announcement of substantial layoffs by Walmart at the corporate level was particularly intriguing.

And to begin with, we should look at the actual memo that Donna Morris, Walmart’s chief people officer, circulated to Walmart employees to get the appropriate context for what is transpiring and our own analysis of the pending employment situation:

It has been a little over four years since we faced the global pandemic that reshaped our lives in many ways, including our ways of working. In February 2022, we made the decision to bring Home Office associates back into our campus offices. We believe that being together, in person, makes us better and helps us to collaborate, innovate and move even faster. We also believe it helps strengthen our culture as well as grow and develop our associates.

With the goal of bringing more of us together more often, we are asking the majority of associates working remotely, and the majority of associates within our offices in Dallas, Atlanta, and our Toronto Global Tech office, to relocate. Most relocations will be to our Home Office in Bentonville, but some will be to our offices in the San Francisco Bay Area or Hoboken/New York.

In addition, some parts of our business have made changes that will result in a reduction of several hundred campus roles. While the overall numbers are small in percentage, we are focused on supporting each of our associates affected by these changes.

We have had discussions with associates who were directly impacted by these decisions. We will work closely with them in the coming days and months to navigate the best path forward.

Donna Morris, Chief People Officer

When we look at the proposal being put forth, especially for the Toronto-based employees whose relocation is being primarily focused on a shift to Arkansas (with no direct flights available from Toronto), there are some very serious questions associated with such a move, including:

The Price of Relocation:

• are you being offered an adequate relocation package and what are the contractual conditions on a relocation arrangement;

• are you going to sell your Canadian home or rent it out; o are you going to purchase a new home in the United States or look to rent;

• is your spouse in a position to leave their own career behind and find comparable new employment in Arkansas;

• what will be the impact of uprooting your children from their school, friends and other family members;

• what about all the ties that you and your spouse have in southern Ontario;

• if you’ve been building towards your future in Ontario and retirement, how will this impact your move;

• what will the regular return travel costs to Canada represent;

• can you commute on a weekly basis until you are certain that it is the correct choice (with a minimum of one stop travel and flight + transfer time being 5+ hours);

• what happens if the move isn’t right and you move back in very short order, what is the impact of ending your employment sooner than anticipated.

The Employment Cost:

•  will you be receiving the full amount of pay and legal pay protections once you’ve relocated – who is scrutinizing the numbers for accuracy;

• what legal protections are you being asked to divest, given that you are losing some of the strongest employee protections from the Ontario Employment Standards Act and moving to one of the most employer-friendly states;

• have you been fully paid while in Canada, and if not, will you be losing earned money with this relocation;

• will your prior career progression be halted or delayed by moving to a new location, where there are pre-existing relationships, and senior Canadian personnel may well have taken the severance packages;

• is the proposed severance package sufficient, as their apparent one-size fits all approach doesn’t necessarily reflect detailed consideration of employment specifics;

• will you be able to test out working in the United States, without losing the ability to claim the severance package if relocation doesn’t work for yourself;

• what are the financial implications of working out of country, as you are now working on work visa, with an entirely different set of rules and tax responsibilities to 2 countries.

These are serious questions that you need to consider, with insights and perspective as to your own personal situation being of particular importance, such that attaining knowledgeable professional advice should be of paramount importance.

We understand the importance of making the right decision for your career and your family, such that you should not be afraid of reaching out and getting as much information about your personal situation as possible. For a free confidential initial consultation, contact our law firm at Chris@NeufeldLegal.com or 905-616-8864.