Despite booming national employment levels, Best Buy has chosen to lay off hundreds, potentially thousands, of store workers in the past week. This comes just two weeks after the company informed stockholders that it was seeing poorer sales than it had projected for the quarter.
According to a Best Buy spokesperson, the company performed these layoffs despite having more open positions than the number of employees it fired. In fact, Best Buy is already gearing up to add new temporary workers for the 2022 holiday season while firing current full time employees.
Massive layoffs like this are becoming more common, with brands such as Walmart, Shopify, and Peloton all cutting hundreds of positions. Experts suggest that this is due to inflation forcing many consumers to focus funds on necessities instead of big-ticket appliances and luxury technology.
It is important to note that despite Best Buy claiming sales were lower than expected, the brand’s overall sales are still significantly higher than they were just a few years ago. In the 2022 fiscal year, the company reported sales of $51.8 billion, compared to $47.3 billion in 2021, $43.6 in 2020, and $42.8 in 2019. While the retailer now suggests that profits in the 2023 fiscal year will range between $48.3 billion and $49.9 billion, the estimate range is still higher than any year except last year. This suggests that the retailer’s cuts are not truly as critical to the bottom line as it claims.
What Best Buy Employees Should Consider After Layoffs
A layoff is never good news for workers, but former Best Buy employees should be particularly wary about the circumstances surrounding their firings. The company has been the target of multiple lawsuits regarding employment law issues, from failing to pay overtime to forcing workers to work off the clock to discriminating against employees due to their age. Laid-off employees should keep this history in mind and consider whether their rights were violated when they were fired.
If you were fired in Best Buy’s recent layoffs, think about whether the retailer may have violated any of the following employment laws in your store:
Employment Discrimination Laws
Layoffs are often a source of discriminatory behavior. In many cases, the corporate branch of a business only tells stores to eliminate or reduce roles, not which staff to fire. When biased managers choose who to let go, it’s all too common for them to discriminate against workers due to their age, race, or gender. For example, if the only workers a store lets go during a layoff are people over 40, it may be an example of age-based discrimination.
If you can, contact your former coworkers to find out who still remains at the store. Pay attention to patterns in the demographics of people fired or retained. If you realize that the store manager was discriminatory in choosing who to lay off, you may have grounds to file a wrongful termination or discrimination lawsuit against Best Buy.
Union-Busting Laws
Layoffs also allow large companies like Best Buy to perform covert union busting. There has been a major wave of unionization in retail stores across the country in the past few years. Anti-union managers may take the layoffs as a chance to let go of workers who advocate for unions while claiming plausible deniability.
Best Buy also has a history of anti-union activity, so this would not be the first time it’s done something similar. For example, in 2020, the retailer was proven to give anti-union training to all staff when a presentation was leaked to the public.
If you were laid off after talking to your coworkers about forming a union, the company might have taken anti-union action. You can speak to the expert employment law attorneys at the Law Offices of Todd M. Friedman to discuss your situation.
Federal WARN Act
The federal WARN Act requires employers to give workers at least 60 days’ notice before performing certain layoffs. A layoff must follow the WARN Act if it:
- Closes a store or branch and puts at least 50 people out of a job; OR
- Fires between 50 and 499 workers at a single location, and this is 33% or more of the staff working there; OR
- Fires more than 500 workers at a single site under any conditions.
If your employer fired more than 50 people from your location, the company might have violated the WARN Act for failing to give workers advanced notice. That would give you grounds to file a class action lawsuit for you and your fellow laid-off workers.
Stand Up for Your Employment Rights
Best Buy’s layoffs are a clear move to boost profits for an organization that is already achieving record sales. With the tech giant’s history of discrimination and anti-union behavior, laid-off workers should consider whether their managers used the opportunity to wrongfully terminate them.
If you believe you were fired from Best Buy for anti-union or discriminatory reasons, you should stand up for your rights. Get in touch with the experts at the Law Offices of Todd M. Friedman, P.C., to discuss your situation. Our attorneys have decades of experience fighting for workers’ rights. We will examine your case and help you decide the next steps to take if your employer discriminated against you.
