MARCH 16, 2023
Google Layoffs 2023: Around 250 Google employees at the tech giant’s office in Zurich, Switzerland staged a walkout on Wednesday to mark their protest and solidarity for those laid off as part of the massive layoff from the company worldwide.
Earlier in January, Alphabet Inc, the parent company of Google announced that it will be laying off 12,000 employees, six percent of Alphabet’s workforce, worldwide.
The move came amid massive job cuts across the corporate sector in the US, particularly in IT. The companies have meanwhile sacked more than 2,90,000 workers since the start of the year, as per the data of tracking site Layoffs.fyi.
The affected Google employees in the US and Canada have already been informed about the development. However, the exact number of employees laid off at other locations is yet to be clear.
The walkout by the employees of the Google’s Zurich office, which has around the strength of 5,000 employees, is a protest against the mass layoffs by the company and a show of solidarity with colleagues whose employment has already been terminated.
A representative of Syndicom, the Swiss trade union for IT workers, said more than 2,000 employees had offered wage cuts and reduced working hours as alternatives to layoffs. However, Google rejected the proposal. Syndicom has a significant number of members at Google Zurich.
“Our members at Google Zurich and all employees joining the walkout are showing solidarity with those laid off,” a Syndicom spokesperson said as quoted by Reute
The spokesperson further said that the employees are bothered by the non-transparent nature of the layoffs. “They are especially disappointed that Google is laying off workers at a time when the company is making billions in profit every year,” the representative added.
Google Layoffs
In January 2023, Alphabet Inc, Google’s parent company announced that it will be laying off 12,000 employees. Google CEO Sundar Pichai in an email sent to the company’s staff said that the firm will begin making layoffs in the US immediately. In other countries, the process “will take longer due to local laws and practices,” he said.
Courtesy: Times Now
