With reports of job cuts as high as 20% of the national workforce, employees with decades of service at IBM are saying the company’s longtime severance policy has radically changed.
The policy of granting two weeks severance for every year of employment, for a maximum of six months, has been cut back to one month severance, they say.
One longtime IBM worker, a Ridgefielder, was notified Wednesday that his last day of work would be May 31.
The job cuts announcement came two weeks after the company notified the employees about the change in the severance policy.
“My husband has been in shock since Wednesday,” said the worker’s wife, who didn’t want the family name used until relatives are told.
“He hasn’t told his mom or his best friends. He is literally in a daze,” she said.
Workers believe it is a 20 percent reduction of the entire IBM worldwide workforce. The company has not responded to numerous requests for information about the layoffs. Calls from The Press to the company were not returned.
One published report online said the workers also will receive $2,500 in retraining money, but the Press could not verify that.
Another laid-off worker said in an online forum he believes the company is shifting jobs to India and other places overseas, and sugar-coating the massive layoff.
IBM won’t comment on or disclose how many people it cuts except to confirm that it is continuously shedding some workers while hiring others, one report said.
Last year, IBM hired and fired in almost equal numbers. It added 70,000 people, CEO Ginni Rometty told the publication Business Insider.
But, according to research done by Business Insider, it chopped slightly more than 70,000 people, too, through a combination of attrition, layoffs, retirement, people leaving for other jobs and business units it divested.
IBM ended 2015 with a worldwide headcount of 377,757, it reported. So that’s a workforce churn of 18%.
The hard part for the workers to swallow is the loss of their traditional benefits, such as medical coverage for retirees.
The company’s vice president of human relations, Diane Gherson, who lives in Ridgefield, did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.
“It’s unbelievable,” said the worker’s wife. “It’s unbelievable what they’re doing. It’s a horrible shame this isn’t being talked about.”
The post IBM plans huge round of layoffs appeared first on The Ridgefield Press.