Management

Wal-Mart is scaling back health care coverage for future part-time workers and raising premiums for some full-time workers. The giant retailer says rising health care costs are forcing it to eliminate health care coverage for future part-time workers who work less than 24 hours a week.

Daily-deal site BuyWithMe laid off half its staff on Oct. 19, raising questions about its future as market leader Groupon prepares for its initial public offering.

A former Target manager says that he was more or less forced to work through his mandatory breaks — and then fired for doing so. This prompted quite a few current and former Target workers to write to us with their own stories of Target employment woe.

Home improvement chain Lowe’s will lay off 1,950 workers and close 20 stores in 15 states, the company said. Two of the locations on the chopping block are in California. Lowe’s said that it closed 10 stores on Oct. 16 and will phase out the rest in a month.

Wal-Mart said Ed Chan, president of its China operations, quit as the company grapples with a pork labeling probe that shut all 13 of its stores in Chongqing and led to the detention of at least 27 people.

Victoria's Secret Direct, the internet and catalog division of Victoria's Secret, announced that Pia Ferrario will remain in her role as CEO through holiday and then transition into an advisory role with the company. Bridget Ryan-Berman, former chief executive officer of Giorgio Armani Corp., will join Victoria's Secret Direct as its chief executive officer.

Wal-Mart is getting another public bludgeoning in China as anger over food safety and political fighting make the retail giant a convenient target. Authorities in the city of Chongqing have arrested two employees, closed down 13 Wal-Mart stores for two weeks and fined the company $421,000.

Target said Online President Steve Eastman has left the company, one month after the retailer’s website crashed from overwhelming demand for new designer apparel. Eastman left the company to “pursue other opportunities,” Target said in a statement. Target did not name a replacement in the press release.

A group of Wal-Mart employees seeking better wages and working conditions marched on the retailer's headquarters Oct. 12 but said they were turned away without meeting with company officials. Around 100 members of Organization United for Respect at Walmart (OUR Walmart) said they assembled so as to "offer solutions for improving the company's ailing U.S. store operations," on the same day of the company's annual investor conference.

After Chinese newspaper Global Times published an open letter from employees at a Shenzhen Gucci flagship detailing complaints about working conditions — including rules dictating that employees request permission before using the bathroom or drinking water — the luxury Italian fashion house has initiated an investigation into local mismanagement.