CVS to lay off 5,000 mostly corporate workers nationwide; RI impact unclear

Paul Edward Parker, Providence Journal
·2 min read
CVS, the fourth-largest U.S. company by revenue, is also among Rhode Island's top employers, with 5,000 to 10,000 jobs.
CVS, the fourth-largest U.S. company by revenue, is also among Rhode Island's top employers, with 5,000 to 10,000 jobs.

WOONSOCKET — Woonsocket-based CVS Health announced Tuesday it plans to lay off 5,000 of its 300,000 employees nationwide.

The layoffs will affect jobs mainly at its corporate facilities, and cuts at its stores, pharmacies, clinics and customer-service centers will not be in jobs that deal directly with customers, the company said in a news release.

Although the company did not announce the target number for layoffs yesterday, an internal message to employees on Monday said it was 5,000.

The health care giant declined to specify how the cuts will affect Rhode Island workers.

"At this time, we don’t have a regional breakout of job impacts to share, but this decision applies nationally across the company to primarily corporate positions," said a statement from Mike DeAngelis, executive director of corporate communications for the company.

As of April, CVS had 60 pharmacy stores in nearly 30 Rhode Island municipalities, as well as 20 corporate facilities spread across five communities in the northern part of the state: Woonsocket, Smithfield, North Smithfield, Cumberland and Lincoln.

As of Tuesday morning, the state Department of Labor and Training had not received a "WARN" notice from CVS, according to department spokeswoman Edwine Paul. The federal Worker Adjustment And Retraining Notification Act requires companies to give public notice of its intent to lay off workers. It sets a threshold, depending on the nature of how the jobs are organized. It can be as few as a minimum of 50 at a single work site, up to a minimum of 500 company-wide.

"Our industry is evolving to adapt to new consumer health needs and expectations," Tuesday's company statement said. "As part of an enterprise initiative to reprioritize our investments around care delivery and technology, we must take difficult steps to reduce expenses."

The company added, "We do not anticipate there will be any impact to our clients and customers as we remain focused on our mission – continuing to provide the exceptional care and support our customers, patients and communities deserve and depend on."

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: CVS laying off 5,000