So.....best buy decided to delete all day time project team positions as of May 1, 2016, to the tune of 450-600 employees. So this is just FANTASTIC, in the most sarcastic way possible. Project Team was created to do what the store could not. Which was keep planogram how they should be and update them accordingly. We did that and saved best buy millions just in our first year alone. Now they repay us by saying thanks but you can go f*** yourselves. All the hard work everyone put in was for nothing because the stores decide to not hold up their and.
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Right
And now they are bringing the Solar teams back. Remember when they got rid of AP then brought it back?
I can't speak for all stores. But it my district. We sat around and waited for the day time project team to make their way around to stores. Planos would be up to be out for sunday and the project team woudnt be in until thursday. It made no sense to pay anyone not in the store where they had a merch team fully capable of doing these planos. That is extra labor to pay some of these people that come oliday time had to be put into stores because there was no work. If they were full timers and had no work loads for them they still had to find jobs for them to pay. They paid some of these pepole 40 hours a week 52 weeks a year but only really had 9 months worth of work. Any lay off is sad. They should have been able to transition into the stores to work on merch teams but the company did not create enough jobs. In my store we have done all the work they were doing plus the work my merch team was doing and are doing it with less hours. So from a business point it made sense. From a people side it's sad.
I still work for Best Buy... our store is down over half a million down in sales.. and they blame the lack of sales on the merch team for not cleaning properly. Now they are making the merch team power on the entire store after years and years of the sales team doing it.
The WARN Act would apply if you consider the solar project team as 1 location within the company. It sounds like it was 1 group in best buy that covered 1000+ locations. This would be something for a lawyer to look into.
The WARN Act covers any employer who has more than 100 employees that work more than 20 hours a week. Best Buy is well over 100 employees and hence the WARN Act does cover them.
Requirements to announce layoff and give 60 notice.
Plant closing. This actually might be applicable in this case. "A covered employer must give notice if an employment site (or one or more facilities or operating units within an employment site) will be shut down, and the shutdown will result in an employment loss (as defined later) for 50 or more employees during any 30-day period. This does not count employees who have worked less than 6 months in the last 12 months or employees who work an average of less than 20 hours a week for that employer."
If best buy claims they didn't have to notify because it's more than 1 location, then this rule would cover that.
Mass Layoff may apply if the project team is considered 1 location. "A covered employer must give notice if there is to be a mass layoff which does not result from a plant closing, but which will result in an employment loss at the employment site during any 30-day period for 500 or more employees, or for 50-499 employees if they make up at least 33% of the employer's active workforce. Again, this does not count employees who have worked less than 6 months in the last 12 months or employees who work an average of less than 20 hours a week for that employer"
Exceptions to this rule
Faltering company. This does not apply to best buy.
Unforeseeable business circumstances. This also does not apply.
Natural disaster. This does not apply.
There are also additional rules in many states that are stricter than these rules.
Severance Pay does not apply as an exception to the law. That is a separate topic and best buy owes those employees severance pay as promised.
If they broke the WARN Act depends on how things were structured and that may be up to the lawyers to figure out,
Best buy also forced everyone into an arbitration agreement just before this happened. It's possible that this can't be enforced in a court since they forced their employees to agree to it within a short time frame with no option but to leave.
I think severance is a different topic and don't think it would change things in terms of Pay in lieu of notice.
It's possible the they owe those employees 15 days of pay if they only gave 45 days notice.
I believe That under WARN a company is required to pay you if you were notified less then 60 days before your layoff, and only pay you for the difference in days. Since we were given about 45 days that would equate to 15 days equivalent of pay. However I'm pretty sure that if you are getting severance equal or greater too those 15 days that warn doesn't apply.
Did Best Buy break the law?
Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act from 1989 requires 60 days notice for a layoff that large.
And Best Buy has been quiet about it too.
Does anyone know exactly how many people were laid off?
Over 1000?
Best Buy laying off the Solar Project Team to trim costs and appease stockholders is the equivalent of a fat kid telling his parents how much weight he lost by having his leg amputated. Good luck merchandising your stores, Stumpy!
yeah ive been in this position for a few months now.. winding down to the last few weeks.. i like how they reduced hours to save money on the means made from adding up last few pay periods and making sure your last few checks are tiny to lower your lump sum severance.
For Best Buy to cut day side project team positions is the most ridiculous decision I've seen in many many years with this company. Project team handles majority of planograms and third party vendor work in their respective stores. Corporate has decided to pull these hours and put them back in stores for blue shirt labor. Project team was told on a very short, scripted conference call that they could apply for the merch jobs that are supposed to be created within the stores now. Many of the stores did not receive a new headcount to accommodate this, so that leaves wonder as to how the planograms will be completed , if they even get touched. Vendors who buy space in the stores should be the ones to worry too since they are relying on operations managers to make sure the blue shirts complete these properly, order missing fixtures and signage, correctly position and price items and ensure the displays are and remain functional.
I was hired onto the Solar Project Team on January 3, as well. In some ways it was a pain in the ass especially since many of the store personnel didn't know anything about merchandising, looking up where items go on a planogram, keeping shelves stocked, the list goes on. The hours were longer than I wanted, but the pay wasn't bad, and I really liked the autonomy and set schedule. I loved the job, for the most part, and I loved working for BBY.
However, I kind of saw this coming, just didn't expect it to occur this suddenly. BBY's numbers aren't the best. The company really needs to rethink their business model and perhaps shrink down the size of the stores. They just cannot compete on an even par with Amazon and other online retailers. They just can't. Unless someone can think of some bold innovations to revive it, big-box store business is dead.
Any new information on the layoffs other than the daytime?
Over 500 full time and over 900 part time project team members lost their jobs. Plus managers who lost their titles and we all take a rather large pay cut.
I just got this job on January the 3rd,and I was really liking it a lot,being able to go from store to store was really fun,now to lose this job really hurts
This was the worst way to pull the plug on the only members of Best Buy that know how to keep their stores functional. This is like firing your mechanic but telling the salesman to keep your car running and maintained. Maybe they could cut some useless HR jobs and save millions with no damage to the brand.
It's good to see other fellow members venting about this. That conference call was a joke, we were all blindsided. Now they are creating a new in store position which is projects team but in store. Less money, less hours
This is the third time I remember Best Buy doing a similar move to the Project Team. Every time they do this the shareholders are happy and the store gradually falls apart (literally.) Then Best Buy brings Project Team back (with fewer employees, less pay, and more of a workload of course) only to repeat this 5 years later.
That's a solid business!
But knowing bestbuy this is only the beginning .i imagine there will be lots more of job cuts soon . I don't think anyone is safe
I would say 450-600 would be on the low end. Most all stores had 1 part timer assigned and other floaters not to mention leads and managers
I wonder who is next .. Normally when they do job cuts they cut a whole lot , so I'm sure they will be More cutting pretty soon
What unbelievable news they sprung on us today. All the training we just went through for them to just lay us off. We are the only reason the stores look good.