Walmart Enacts Emergency Leave Policy
in Response to Coronavirus Outbreak Walmart has announced the deployment of a new emergency
leave policy for their 1.4 million hourly U.S. workers. The decision comes on the heels of the
retailer’s recent confirmation of a store associate
testing positive for COVID-19 in Kentucky. As part of the new policy, hourly workers will be able to receive
up to two weeks of paid leave if they’re required to quarantine. The paid leave also
extends to workers
who have a confirmed
case of the coronavirus. If unable to return to work after the two weeks,
both full-time and part-time workers can receive
additional pay replacement for up to 26 weeks. This is a significant change for the retailer,
as full-time associates were previously
only allowed 80 hours of paid leave. Part-time associates
were previously only
allotted 48 hours of
paid leave. According to Senior VP of Walmart U.S. Benefits
Adam Stavisky, Walmart's decision to implement
the policy is critical in this "unprecedented time." Adam Stavisky,
to CNBC