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Saturday, 28 January 2023

HR News: 27 Jan, 2023

1.

12,000 people to lose jobs at Alphabet, Google

In an email to the employees, Sundar Pichai took full responsibility for the actions that led to the layoffs. Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google, announced plans to reduce its workforce by 6 per cent. This means that around 12,000 people working at the Company will lose their jobs. Impacted employees in the US have already been informed but those in the other countries will be informed in due course of time, keeping in mind the local laws and practices. In an email to the employees, Sundar Pichai, CEO, Alphabet, wrote, “We’ve undertaken a rigorous review across product areas and functions to ensure that our people and roles are aligned with our highest priorities as a company. The roles we’re eliminating reflect the outcome of that review. They cut across Alphabet, product areas, functions, levels and regions.” In the US, employees have been given a notice period of 60 days, and they will be paid full salary for this interim period. In addition, the Company will also pay a severance package which includes 16 weeks or 4 months’ salary. Besides, employees will get a salary for two weeks for every additional year they have spent Google. Affected employees will also be paid bonuses for 2022 and the remaining vacation time. The Company has also promised to offer six months of healthcare, job placement services, and immigration support for those affected. However, for employees outside the US including India, local laws and practices will be followed for the severance package.

 

2.

Wayfair to sack 5% of its workforce

The online furniture retailer to lay off 1,000 employees in an effort to cut operational cost. Wayfair has announced plans to lay off 1,000 employees in an effort to cut operational cost. The decision comes after the online furniture retailer announced in August that it would be laying off around 870 employees, due to a decrease in demand for furniture and home decor following the pandemic. The shares of Wayfair have dropped by about 75% in the last 12 months, despite the fact that the company’s income had risen dramatically in the early phase of the pandemic when US consumers were spending money on home improvements. As reported by the Wall Street Journal, the decision will affect around 5 per cent of its workforce. This makes Wayfair the latest company to join a growing list of American businesses including financial institutions, major software companies, and food delivery services, which have been forced to let go of employees due to economic concerns.

Wayfair hired more employees during the pandemic to expand its warehouse and customer service teams. By the end of 2021, the company had 16,681 full-time equivalent employees, a significant increase from the 12,100 it had at the end of 2018. As per the company’s documents, the number of customer service employees more than doubled during this period, reaching around 4,900 workers.

 

3.

General Motors CEO and executives sued by employee union for failure to pay court

Workers claim no compensation paid despite court ruling in favor of workers, union names CEO Mary Barra and other executives for contempt of court. The employee union of the General Motors plant in Maharashtra’s Talegaon has filed a lawsuit against the company’s global CEO, Mary Barra, and other executives, due to their failure to pay court-ordered compensation to sacked factory workers. The Pune Industrial Court ordered that 50 percent of the salary be paid to 1,086 retrenched workers from April 7, 2022 until the case was decided. However, the company challenged the order in the Bombay High Court, and later moved the Supreme Court against the order, despite the High Court ruling in favor of the workers in September.

The workers have claimed that no compensation has been paid to them thus far, and the union has named Barra and other executives for contempt of court. The carmaker is said to owe the workers around $3 million in wages based on the industrial court’s order.

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