"I came to work for Walmart in my 20s. I have been always working hard and never made any major mistakes. I am now pushing 40. If I have to leave Walmart, I really don’t know where to find another job." said a department manager at Walmart’s Shekou store in Shenzhen.
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On Thursday, more than 50 staff were protesting at the Walmart’s China headquarter in Shenzhen. Same as the above department manager, they were included in the retailer’s job optimization and regrouping program, as the economic crisis has left Walmart little choice but to reduce cost.
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Though Walmart claimed that the program aimed to relocate some mid-management staff to similar posts in new stores, angry staff labeled the program as a de facto layoff plan which the terms were tricky and unfair.
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Staff included the optimization program are offered three options, lowered position with reduced salary, relocation on same level and leaving the company on compensation.
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One staff said, "We are enraged. It is like a sudden attack. We were not aware of it at all and out of the blue we were called to go for a ‘chat�and then asked to make a decision."
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Echoed the above department manager, "In fact, we can’t get same position at new stores in other cities. There are so many managers are fighting for new positions and new stores need local staff. The program was just designed not to be perceived as a staff-cutting plan, but it is a de facto one."
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He went on, "we don’t have high education qualification. We worked hard for Walmart, spent best of our youth here, and we are emotionally attached to Walmart. No matter from a personal perspective or the reality’s, we cannot accept that the company forces us to leave using such a method."
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Having worked for Walmart for 13 years, the department manager has signed indefinite contract with Walmart since the launch of new labour law in 2007. And many others included in the optimization program are also under indefinite contracts.
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According to the new labour law, company has to communicate and discuss with labour union before any massive personnel adjustment is announced. But the chairman of labour union at one Walmart store said he hasn’t been informed.
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On Thursday early afternoon, seven representatives were selected to negotiate with the management. However, the meeting on Thursday was fruitless. Human resources managers of Walmart China held the talk, but key managers were absent.
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The dispute is escalating.
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On Thursday evening, General Labor Union of Shenzhen sent Vice Chairman, Wang Tongxin and Legal department head Liu Qin to Walmart’s China headquarter office and facilitate a second round negotiation between the staff representative and the management.
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Early this year, in order to mitigate the social impact of increasing unemployment brought by the financial crisis, Chinese government has issued a "layoff guideline", which requires enterprises to communicate with labour union, staff and local labour and social security department before announcing any layoff plan of above 20 employees or 10% of total staff.
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Leally Huang, public relations manager, Wal-Mart China told China Daily that the company intended to shift five to six mid-management posts from each of its present stores. Wal-Mart had 144 stores across China by the end of 2008, and plans to open 23 new stores by the end of the first-quarter this year.
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Therefore, the optimization program could potential cause a significant number of staff losing jobs but also put the world’s largest retailed in front of legal dispute.
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While the meetings between Walmart’s staff and management haven’t achieved any break-through, Shenzhen General Labour Union told staff to remain "patient and calm" and to continue the negotiation. It also disclosed that the government’s labour department has entered to "coordinate" this matter.