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Circuit City has always had a difficult time. It doesn’t have the everyman-machismo of Best Buy or the upscale electronics of a Fry’s. What it does have, however is a whole round of publicity due to layoffs - layoffs to the tune of 3,400 people, or 8 percent of the company’s workforce. But before you start feeling sorry for those pour souls who slog it day in and day out in the thankless retail industry check out this sweet deal Circuit City is offering them:

The laid-off workers, about 8 percent of the company’s total work force, would get a severance package and a chance to reapply for their former jobs, at lower pay, after a 10-week delay, the company said.

The news of the layoffs came as a surprise to Rachelle Gouled, who earned about $7.75 an hour working on the sales floor at a Circuit City in Roseville, Minn. She said 10 people were laid off Wednesday at her store.
…
“This strategy strikes me as being quite cold,” said Bernard Baumohl, executive director of The Economic Outlook Group. “I don’t think it’s in the best interest of Circuit City as a whole.”

While other companies, such as Caterpillar Inc., have introduced two-tiered wage systems, where newer workers make less, firing workers and offering to rehire them at a lower wage is very rare.

Awesome - it’s a little early but I’m thinking employer of the year kudos may just be in order.