PORTLAND, Ore — With its vast network of retail stores still shut down by the global pandemic, Columbia Sportswear has put 3,500 retail workers on furlough and cut their pay by 75 percent.
They will receive their lower compensation and still receive benefits through the end of April, company spokeswoman Mary Ellen Glynn. It’s unclear what will happen at that point, she said.
A restructuring of Columbia’s corporate operation led to some downsizing there as well, Glynn said, though she declined to specify the number of workers who lost their jobs.
Columbia, like many of its competitors, has been hammered by global pandemic. It opted to close its retail stores after the breakout of COVID-19. Social distancing has emerged as the best tool to protect people from the rogue virus. But it’s difficult to accomplish sufficient spacing in retail stores and other workplace settings.
Columbia is far from alone. The job losses have been staggering. The Oregon Employment Department said Thursday that it has received 269,900 initial unemployment claims in three weeks.
Columbia came in for plenty of praise when, even after closing its retail stores, it chose to keep its retail employees on the payroll. They were paid in full for four weeks through a ‘catastrophic paid-leave” program.
But that four-week grace period is now coming to a close. Instead, retail workers will get paid 25 percent of their normal salary through this month. After that, it’s unclear what will happen.
“By continuing to pay at least a portion of the weekly pay, we hope this demonstrates our commitment to our teams and the hope that we can all get back to work together as quickly as possible,” the company said in a memo to employees. “We expect to evaluate our ability to continue this support on an ongoing basis as we actively monitor the landscape including the expected timeline for continued store closures, government support programs and our financial health.
Some employees of Columbia’s distribution center in North Portland had complained bitterly that they were expected to continue to report for work while many other employees were working from home or furloughed. The workers argued that they could not practice good “social distancing” in the building.
But that is now changing as well. As Columbia’s sales continue to decline, so too has the volume of goods being shipped through the distribution centers. In response, the company instituted rotating shifts that will “accommodate both a reduction in volume and the ability to implement social distancing practices for the protection of our employees,” the company stated in a memo sent to employees.
Many of the distribution center workers are now working 50 percent of the time. “As a functioning distribution team is vital to our ongoing operations health, we are offering an additional two weeks of catastrophic paid leave, for a total of 4 weeks of regular pay protection,” the company said in the memo.
Two weeks ago, Tim Boyle, the company’s CEO, president and chair, had his salary lowered to $10,000 a year. Board Members and other senior executives also took pay cuts. On Thursday, Columbia said about 2,500 other employees at the director level and above, will see their salaries reduced.
This article was originally published by The Oregonian/OregonLive, one of more than a dozen news organizations throughout the state sharing their coverage of the novel coronavirus outbreak to help inform Oregonians about this evolving health issue.
