Best Buy Furloughing 51,000 Employees
Best Buy Announced Wednesday that they will furlough roughly 51,000 employees, and executives will be taking pay cuts due to COVID-19.
Best Buy CEO Corie Barry announced in a press release Wednesday that due to the Coronavirus pandemic, they will be temporarily furloughing roughly 51,000 domestic hourly employees, including nearly all part-time employees. The company will retain about 82 percent of its full-time employees.
CEO Corie Barry said:
The situation remains very fluid and there is still a great deal of uncertainty, particularly as it relates to depth and duration of store closures and consumer confidence over time. We are taking the steps necessary to resume providing our customers in-home services in the near future, keeping in mind our overriding priority on the safety of our employees and customers. We are also preparing to re-open stores to customers as soon as it is safe to do so, with timing likely to vary at state and local levels. In the meantime, as you would expect, we are focused on making the difficult decisions necessary to ensure that at the end of this crisis Best Buy remains a strong, vibrant company
The changes take effect on April 19, and some corporate employees are participating in voluntary reduced workweeks and resulting pay, as well as voluntary furloughs. CEO Barry will forego 50 percent of her base salary and the members of the Board of Directors will forego 50 percent of their cash retainer fees through at least September 1, 2020, the company said in the press release.
Additionally, company executives reporting directly to the CEO will take a 20% reduction in base salary through at least September 1, 2020, the company announced.