(MENAFN- Trend News Agency) Walmart Inc will close three of its U.S. technology hubs, asking
hundreds of workers to relocate to keep their jobs, a company
spokesperson told reuters on Monday, trend reports.
Nearly all technology employees across the company would be
expected to work in their offices for at least two days a week,
added Robert Munroe, Walmart's director of global
communications.
The big-box retailer would close offices that housed technology
staff in Austin, Texas, in Carlsbad, California and in Portland,
Oregon, Munroe said. The operations would move to hubs including
one in San Bruno, California or the company's headquarters in
Bentonville, Arkansas, he said, citing a memo sent last week by
Walmart's global technology head, Suresh Kumar.
'We have decided, looking at our location strategy, that we will
exit those three hubs,' he said, adding that the combined
employment at the three offices was in the hundreds.
'Everything is variable; there is no set date that (this
transfer) must be completed,' he added. The company currently has
11 tech hubs in the U.S. and six abroad, according to its
website.
The Wall Street Journal earlier reported the news.
Munroe said Walmart, which employs more than 1.3 million people
in the United States, would pay transfer costs of workers who moved
and make severance payments to those who decided to leave the
company.
The directive on returning to the office follows similar
requirements from several other U.S. companies, including Walt
Disney Co, Uber and Starbucks. Last month, Disney boss Bob Iger
told employees to return to corporate offices for four days a week
starting in March, while Starbucks required corporate workers to
return to do so at least three days a week starting in January.
'We believe the future in tech will be one in which working
virtually will be the new normal, at least for most of the work we
lead,' Kumar wrote two years ago.
Munroe said: 'This (move) is still within line to that
language.'
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