Business briefs, Jan. 23, 2016

Walmart ordered to reinstate fired workers

CHICAGO -- A national Labor Relations Board judge has ordered Walmart to reinstate 16 workers it unlawfully fired for striking.

Administrative Law Judge Geoffrey Carter also ordered Wal-Mart to pay the fired workers back pay and told it to wipe clean the disciplinary records of 38 other workers whose punishment for striking stopped short of dismissal.

The labor-backed group OUR Walmart filed the complaint against the big-box retailer in 2013 after workers who participated in strikes centered around Walmart's annual shareholders meeting in Bentonville, Ark., were retaliated against for calling for an annual salary of at least $25,000.

Workers from 26 stores nationwide were illegally disciplined for participating in the protests, the judge found.

Managers at those stores must hold staff meetings at which workers are informed of their right to strike, he ordered. Managers must also read from a script in which they promise not to threaten or discipline workers for exercising those rights.

Walmart, which has argued that the strikes were hit-and-run, intermittent work stoppages that are not protected under federal labor law, said it would appeal the judge's ruling to the NLRB.

Shyp on-demand packing service ships out of Miami

MIAMI -- Shyp, the on-demand packing and shipping service, has pulled out of Miami.

The company launched in Miami in November 2014, its third city after San Francisco and New York. In an interview with the Miami Herald last year, CEO Kevin Gibbon said the Miami market skewed high for ecommerce shoppers and for international shipments, and in December a spokesman said the Miami operation was too busy shipping holiday gifts to give an interview. But in an article in FastCompany late last week, Gibbon said the Miami market has underperformed, in part because Shyp didn't offer a Spanish language app and because Miami didn't have enough tech-savvy consumers who would be Shyp early adopters. "Before a city is profitable, it's burning capital that can be used in other parts of the business," Gibbon told FastCompany.

BankUnited beats 4Q 2015 earnings expectations

MIAMI -- BankUnited beat analyst expectations for the fourth quarter of 2015 a few days after announcing it would stop making residential mortgage loans for consumers.

The Miami Lakes-based bank reported net income of $56.3 million for the fourth quarter, or 52 cents per diluted share, compared to $46.8 million, or 45 cents per diluted share, for the fourth quarter of 2014. Analysts had expected the company to hit 48 cents per share, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Annual net income was $251.7 million for 2015, compared to $204.2 million in 2014. But the bank said that excluding discrete income tax benefit its 2015 net income stood at $203.1 million.

-- Herald wire reports

This story was originally published January 22, 2016 at 11:50 PM with the headline "Business briefs, Jan. 23, 2016 ."