Total Wine & More, the country's largest privately owned wine, beer, and liquor retailer, has stopped paying its frontline employees an additional $2 an hour for hazard pay even as many Americans are still ordered to stay at home, reports BuzzFeed News.
The news outlet said Total Wine's chief stores officer informed its managers of the decision in a confidential memo that said the chain was "not continuing" the raises for hourly workers, in part because "trends in the business and external environment."
"We are unable to predict the long-term impact COVID-19 will have on our business and the economy," the memo read. "We are doing all we can to ensure that we stay open and continue to be a growing business."
One manager in California told BuzzFeed News the move is hypocritical.
"As a manager, I try not to be negative, but it's hard to be positive right now," the person said. "Why did you guys take away the hazard pay, but yet you're saying now it's mandatory that we wear gloves and masks?"
A Total Wine spokesperson told BuzzFeed News the extra pay was "always temporary" and "not intended to be hazard pay," but was meant to help employees "during a surge in business."
"It was a recognition of the hard work that our team members were doing," he said. "It wasn't hazard pay, it was just recognition that things had gotten busier."
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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