Walmart is laying off roughly 700 employees at corporate offices in Bentonville and North Carolina. In addition, Walmart will be paying more than $130 million to settle a federal criminal claim.
The largest of the cuts will be taking place at Walmart’s regional office in Charlotte, North Carolina, where the company will be letting go of more than 500 employees. Retail Dive was the first to report that 569 finance and accounting employees will be let go.
Walmart will be using Genpact, a professional services firm, to fill the gap left by the lay-offs.The lay-offs will be effective September 13 according to a North Carolina Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification.
The second set of layoffs will be happening in Bentonville, where Walmart is shutting down its jewelry distribution center to make room for its new corporate headquarters. News outlets have reported that Walmart has been preparing to reduce its jewelry business for quite some time. In July 2018, JCK magazine, a jewelry industry publication, published an article detailing multiple sources that indicated that the company was looking to downsize its jewelry operations.
Talk Business & Politics first reported that the retail giant will be closing its Bentonville jewelry distribution center and making the operations to Marlow, Okla. The August 31 closure of the facility will impact 158 employees according to the report.
In other news, Walmart reached a settlement today in a federal court over a Justice Department claim that it and a Brazilian subsidiary company violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices. The Associated Press reports that Walmart will pay $138 million penalty to settle the claim.
According to the report, the Walmart subsidiary is accused of making more than $500,000 in payments to an individual to expedite construction permits. Specifically, the company reportedly made payments in the amount of $527,000 to an intermediary.
READ MORE: Walmart Planning Construciton of New Home Office
