Labor & Employment

Imagine a lifelong Procter & Gamble employee suddenly named CEO of Walmart and that is essentially what happened at leading global retail Tesco where the company has named long time Unilever executive Dave Lewis as its next CEO.

New York – Rob Brown, an actor best known for his role on the HBO series “Treme,” has reportedly settled a discrimination lawsuit against Macy’s and the city of New York. According to Reuters, Brown’s suit accused three Macy’s security guards in a New York store of handcuffing him, publicly accusing him of credit card fraud, and marching him through the store before harassing and mocking him in a detention cell for an hour in a June 2013 incident.

Tewksbury, Mass. – Although no promise has been made to rehire ousted CEO Arthur T. Demoulas, a rally at the corporate headquarters of Demoulas Super Markets Inc. is replacing a previously planned employee walkout. Employees of Demoulas’ Market Basket chain had threatened to stage a walkout on July 18 in protest of Demoulas’ removal as CEO in June.

San Francisco - DHgate.com, an e-commerce marketplace focused on cross-border trade of Chinese goods, has hired several new executives. These include COO Noah Herschmann, who previously held management roles at Amazon, Groupon, Asia, Staples China and Tweeter.

PPG Industries, a leading coatings and specialty materials company, has elevated EVP Michael H. McGarry to chief operating officer, effective Aug. 1. He will remain based at PPG’s global headquarters in Pittsburgh and continue to report to chairman and CEO Charles E. Bunch.

McGarry will have executive oversight responsibility for all of PPG’s strategic business units and operating regions and for the information technology (IT), environment, health and safety (EH&S) and purchasing functions.

Electrolux president and CEO Keith McLoughlin reflected on the company's progress during the second fiscal quarter, pointing to prospects for growth.

However, net sales decreased by about 4.9% year-over-year, totaling $26.3 billion for the three-month period. That decrease was slightly smaller for the six-month period — 2%.

Meanwhile, the company posted a net loss of $92 million for the quarter. For the first six months, the company's net income of $339 million compares to net income of $1.003 billion for the same six-month period last year.

Brampton, Ontario -- Loblaw Cos. on Thursday announced a series of management changes, including the appointment of Galen Weston, executive chairman, as president, effective immediately. He succeeds Vicente Trius, president since August 2011, who is leaving the company, effective immediately,  for family reasons to return to Brazil.

Washington, D.C. -- The House has passed legislation broadening a federal tax law that makes it cheaper for retailers to remodel their stores, the National Retail Federation said.

Lawmakers voted 258-160 today to make “bonus depreciation” permanent, and granted NRF’s request that it be expanded to include stores that are owned rather than just those that are leased. The measure now heads to the Senate.

Redmond, Wash. - Microsoft Corp. is enacting a restructuring plan to simplify its organization and align the recently acquired Nokia mobile devices and services business with the company’s overall strategy. These steps will result in the elimination of up to 18,000 positions in the next year.

Los Angeles – New York-based investment firm Standard General, which owns a roughly 44% stake in troubled apparel retailer American Apparel Inc, is reportedly preparing recovery plans that both include and do not include controversial former CEO and founder Dov Charney. According to Reuters, Standard General is leaving the decision of whether to allow Charney to return to the company up to the American Apparel board, following a third-party investigation by FTI Consulting.