Staples lays off 177 after few months under new owner
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The Staples headquarters in Framingham.
Staples laid off 177 workers in January who are eligible for financial benefits because their jobs were deemed lost because of increased imports, according to a legal notice.
The layoffs came about four months after the Framingham office retailer was taken private in a $6.9-billion sale. It is now part of Sycamore Partners, a New York City private equity company that's taken a contrarian bet on retail at a time when the industry has generally struggled.
Those who were laid off supplied internal information-technology data, according to a U.S. Department of Labor ruling.
Mark Cautela, the director of corporate communications at Staples, said the company would not comment on the layoffs.
The layoffs appear to have taken place under the radar. Staples apparently has not filed a notice to the state of the layoffs through a legal requirement called the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Act. Staples is not listed among companies who triggered a response from job retaining officials on the state's website, and the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development confirmed it hadn't received such a notice. The WARN Act, as its known, has complex guidelines for when companies are required to file notices.
Word of the layoffs was quietly made public in a legal notice filed with the state on Friday. The notice said the Department of Labor had determined in early March that laid off Staples workers, or those who were working for Staples for other firms, had been "adversely impacted by increased imports."
As a result, those workers may be eligible for weekly cash benefits and financial assistance for vocational training programs or job search expenses, the notice said.
The Department of Labor's ruling implies that the laid off workers' jobs may have been shifted overseas.
A petition filed by the Framingham American Job Center with the Department of Labor said 177 workers were affected.
Staples's new CEO, Sandy Douglas, begins his term April 2. He replaces Shira Goodman, who stepped down suddenly on Jan. 26 after more than two decades with the company. She had been the president and CEO since September 2016.
The new Staples owner, Sycamore Partners, also owns Coldwater Creek, Hot Topic, Nine West, Talbots and others.
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