Those who wear that blue and yellow vest are loyal to their company in ways that even hurt their pockets, and Walmart customers are not here for it. Shoppers of the retailer are threatening to boycott after The Guardian revealed that employees wouldn’t be paid extra to work on Thanksgiving.
Rather than pay employees extra for working over the holidays, Walmart offers them 10%- 15% off discounts to shop in its store and is for employees to use over two days. A rep for the chain told Business Insider the policy has been in place for several years.
“We simplified our paid-time-off policies in 2016 to combine vacation, holiday, sick and personal time into one bucket,” the rep wrote in an email statement. “As part of that change, we no longer offer holiday pay. We did this to give our associates greater flexibility and more choice to use their time off when and how they want to. Also as part of that change, associates can now roll over and cash out unused time off at the end of the fiscal year.”
U.S. retailers are not legally required to pay employees overtime for working on holidays, however many do such as Target, Macy’s and JCPenney. So for being cheap, Walmart shoppers have taken to social media to voice their disappointment and hope for change.
“Please boycott #walmart! Instead of paying their employees properly for working on holidays they give them a cheap discount that they have to spend their money at the store to use! This has to be one of the really rotten places to work,” one Twitter user wrote.
Another person tweeted, “On the day where #Walmart employees SPECIFICALLY are known to get trampled, maimed, and killed by braindead human cattle. This is shameful, and so is anyone who shops there–ESPECIALLY on Black Friday.” Tighten up, Walmart!
