Saks Fifth Avenue Sacks Employees Amid Controversy

Saks Fifth Avenue just gave "about 116" -- an interesting estimate -- employees in its Fifth Avenue beauty department the boot.

The New York Post reported that the department store cleansing was not a result of the recession. Rather, some speculate it may be part of a larger plan to avoid legal conflict since the retail union filed a petition to organize the department a mere two weeks ago.

“The timing is very suspicious,” said Gemma de Leon, executive vice president of Local 1102 of the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union. “If they’re doing this to avoid having their employees unionize, it’s against the law.”

Saks is assuring that the layoffs were unrelated to the union's petition, claiming it's simply part of an industry-wide shift in staffing policy.

Recently, individual brands have chosen to staff their own counters instead of using beauty department workers hired by stores. Competing luxury retailers such as Bloomingdales have allowed brands to staff their own cosmetics sections for some time. Saks stores began making the switch during the summer. At this point, almost three-quarters of the staffers at Saks's flagship store are employees of Chanel, Lancôme, or other brands. That number will rise to a full 100% by the end of January.

Saks feels that placing luxury brand experts behind counters will improve customer service:

“We believe this model will provide the best shopping experience for our customers,” Saks spokeswoman Julia Bentley told The Post, noting that the practice of having beauticians “hand off” customers to another associate to ring up a sale has confused clients in the past.

Confused? Really? Not exactly a flattering characterization of shoppers who buy these brands.