After culling a large number of employees from its offices across the globe. The US tech companies introducing the layoffs program in Europe struggle to reduce their head count. While it’s easy for the companies in their headquarters to lay off employees, it seems to be a different story in the East.
European labor law- viewed as a pillar of the “European social model”-
US tech biggies find it difficult to lay off staff because of the labor protection laws which mandate prior consultation with employees’ interest groups prior to sacking them. The law has left thousands in limbo, whether or not they can be affected by the negotiations.
A source in the matter in France said that Google parent Alphabet was negotiating internally to cut down its workforce through voluntary departures and also offer severance packages good enough for workers to leave. Amazon, there has managed to lay off senior managers with a parley of as much as a year.
Google both in France and Germany is deliberating with work councils-company-specific groups where employee representatives negotiate with the management about workforce issues. By law, any organization that determines to lay off an employee needs to bargain with these councils and conclude a full-length procedure.
On the other hand, in the UK where labor laws are not that stringent, 6 percent of the total strength of the world’s widely used search engine firms have been laid off. The same is true for Dublin and Zurich where unions anticipate over 200 lay offs.