Retail workers for Walgreens are going to be getting a lot less time off and taking a pay cut to boot after the pharmacy chain was acquired for $10 billion earlier this year.
Walgreens is stripping away paid vacation time for Thanksgiving, Christmas and other major holidays in cost-cutting efforts by its new owners, private equity firm Sycamore Partners. Bloomberg News reported on the cuts after conducting interviews and reviewing records.
According to Bloomberg, Walgreens has struggled recently, leading the business to cut spending and eventually sell itself outright. More people have been buying convenience items from online retailers or discount chains, and insurance companies are paying pharmacies less for prescription drugs, according to the report. Walgreens’ stock price plunged over 85% in the last decade, and the business has been closing hundreds of stores, according to Bloomberg.
In August, Sycamore paid $10 billion for Walgreens, along with other related health care and retail companies that have since been split apart.
Removing the paid holidays is the latest cost-cutting measure implemented by Walgreens under its new owners. The company fired about 80 corporate employees, including most of its communications team, and announced it would close its office in downtown Chicago.
Previously, full-time hourly Walgreens store employees were still paid if they didn’t work Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, and Labor Day, as long as they met certain requirements like having worked at the company for six months. If they worked the holiday, they got extra compensation.
Now, full-time hourly employees have to work on the holidays to get paid. Employees who work those days still qualify for extra holiday pay, the documents show, according to Bloomberg
“It makes a difference between being able to have your bills paid and being able to have enough groceries,” Shane Jerominski, co-founder of The Pharmacy Guild/IAM, a union for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, told Bloomberg. The group called on the chain to reverse its decision.
