Labor & Employment

Seattle – The flop of Amazon’s Fire smartphone device last year continues to have repercussions.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Amazon has laid off dozens of employees who worked on developing Fire at its Lab126 innovation center in Silicon Valley.

Brisbane, Calif. – Bebe Stores Inc. continues to expand its global presence.

Bebe announced it has signed a five-year strategic cooperation agreement with Shanghai-based brand agency Longgoal LLC to open between 60 and 150 Bebe stores, shop-in-shops and third-party retailers in Greater China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. The first store is expected to open in the summer of 2016.

Columbus, Ohio – Big Lots on Friday reported second-quarter profit and revenue that beat analysts' estimates. The retailer also announced several promotions as part of a realignment of its supply chain management.

Big Lots’ net income dropped 13% to a better-than-expected $17.63 million from $19.94 million, with loss from discontinued operations cutting otherwise flat profit.

Net sales for the quarter increased 1% to $1.21 billion, from $1.19 billion. Same-store sales rose 2.8%.

New York -- In a long-awaited decision, the National Labor Relations Board has made it easier for contract workers and other temporary employees to more easily unionize.

Business groups and associations, including the National Retail Federation, criticized the decision.

The turnaround plan at Big Lots, which is helping the retailer grow profit and same store sales, is also prompting some management changes.

For the second quarter ended Aug. 1,  same store sales increased 2.8%. Net sales increased 1.2% to $1,209.7 million. Big Lots reported a profit of $17.6 million, or 34 cents a share, down from $19.9 million, or 36 cents, a year earlier. Excluding certain items, per-share profit rose to 40 cents from 31 cents. Revenue edged 1.2% higher to $1.21 billion.

Washington — The National Retail Federation wasted no time responding to a ruling by the National Labor Relations board concerning the redefinition of the concept of joint employees.

NRF and other business groups are concerned that the redefinition  could be used to make large businesses and franchisors responsible for the actions of subcontractors or local franchisees even when they do not exercise direct control over those companies’ employees.

San Francisco — Gap Inc. is the latest retailer to say it will cease the practice of assigning store employees on-call shifts with little advance notice.

Gap joins other chains such as Abercrombie & Fitch and Victoria’s Secret in pledging to eliminate the practice from its stores.

As Amazon.com deals with the fallout from a New York Times article over working conditions, another media outlet reports the retailer is scaling back its consumer device division and laying off dozens of employees in its hardware development center.

The division, called Lab126, last year released a flurry of 10 devices, including a television set-top box, the Echo and a wand for scanning bar codes at home, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Plano, Texas – The J.C. Penney Co. Inc. is in the green – green energy savings, that is.

The retailer on Wednesday announced the long-term results of various company initiatives that incorporate sustainability practices in its day-to-day business operations. It also said it would unveil a new energy initiative later this year.

Milwaukee - The Bon-Ton Stores Inc. is increasing its support of e-commerce with a new 743,000-sq.-ft. direct-to-consumer fulfillment center.

The facility, which began transitioning fulfillment operations in June, supports the company’s expanding e-commerce business and omnichannel growth plans.