Walgreens eliminates paid holidays for hourly workers

Walgreens will no longer give many of its retail workers paid vacation time for Thanksgiving, Christmas and other major holidays, as the company looks to cut costs under new owners.

The pharmacy chain eliminated six paid holidays for hourly store workers, cutting hundreds of dollars from their paychecks, according to interviews and records reviewed by Bloomberg News. Walgreens informed workers of the change in early October. That was a little over a month after it was acquired by private equity firm Sycamore Partners.

Walgreens didn’t respond to requests for comment. Sycamore declined to comment.

The storied American drugstore has struggled in recent years, leading the business to cut spending and eventually sell itself outright. More people have been buying convenience items from online retailers or discount chains, and insurance companies are paying pharmacies less for prescription drugs. Walgreens’ stock price has plunged more than 85% in the last decade, and the business has been closing hundreds of stores.

In August, Sycamore paid $10 billion for Walgreens, along with other related healthcare and retail companies that have since been split apart.

Removing the paid holidays is the latest cost-cutting measure implemented by Walgreens under its new owners. The company fired about 80 corporate employees, including most of its communications team, and announced it would close its office in downtown Chicago, Crain’s Chicago Business reported in October.

Previously, full-time hourly Walgreens store employees were still paid if they didn’t work Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, the Fourth of July and Labor Day as long as they met certain requirements, such as having worked at the company for six months. If they worked the holiday, they got extra compensation.

Now, full-time hourly employees have to work on the holidays to get paid. Employees who work those days still qualify for extra holiday pay, the documents show.

One manager said she will lose more than $1,000 in wages throughout the year because of the change, and she’s planning on cutting back on her family vacation this winter to save money. She asked not to be identified due to fear of retaliation.

“It makes a difference between being able to have your bills paid and being able to have enough groceries,” said Shane Jerominski, co-founder of the Pharmacy Guild/IAM, a union for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. The group called on the chain to reverse its decision.

“I don’t think a healthcare worker anywhere in this country, regardless of what their title is, deserves to live like that,” Jerominski said.

Even if employees want to work on the holidays, there aren’t always enough shifts to go around, some Walgreens managers said in interviews. Walgreens last year kept its 24-hour locations open, while closing others for Thanksgiving.

CVS Health Corp., which runs the largest American retail pharmacy chain, gives full-time store workers seven paid holidays, including Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day, spokesperson Amy Thibault said. If they work on the holiday, they get paid time-and-a-half.

The Walgreens workers affected by the cuts are in jobs that are generally paid low wages. Across the U.S., the average hourly rate for a pharmacy technician, who can fill prescriptions and give vaccines, is $21, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Swetlitz writes for Bloomberg.