Some of Google's laid-off staff in the Ireland offices may receive generous severance packages worth more than $320,000 (roughly Rs 2.60 crore), according to a new report. As part of Google's plan to cut 12,000 jobs globally, 240 workers in Ireland were laid off in January.

The severance package reportedly includes six weeks of wages for every year worked at the company, as reported by Sunday Times.

According to the Sunday Times, long-serving employees can receive significant payouts, though it didn't give any specific examples. It is assumed that these fired employees worked for Google since their Irish operations began in 2003.

Google’s parent company Alphabet announced layoffs on January 20. Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Alphabet and Google, took "full responsibility" for the decisions that resulted in the layoffs.

In the memo, Pichai said US employees affected by the layoffs will receive a minimum of 16 weeks of severance pay with two weeks for every additional year at the company. However, in February, some laid-off workers were informed that they would receive fewer stock units as part of their severance package due to an "inaccurate calculation" by Google.

How much does it cost companies to fire employees?

Among the biggest tech behemoths to have declared mass layoffs recently are Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet.

The tech giants have attributed the challenging choice to implement mass layoffs in the face of economic uncertainty to over-hiring and cost-cutting. However, even the expense of firing thousands of workers is not less

According to a Business Insider report, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, and Alphabet will likely spend up to $4.7 billion on severance expenses alone, as per their earnings report.

In the fourth quarter earnings Meta mentioned that severance cost totalled $975 million and this would be offset by "decreases in payroll, bonus, and other benefits expenses."

Also read: Microsoft layoffs in Seattle top 2,700 as tech giant lets go of 559 more employees: Report

Microsoft, in its second quarter results, mentioned that it will incur costs of $800 million from severance pay. Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella in January announced that the company will be "making changes that will result in the reduction of our overall workforce by 10,000 jobs through the end of FY23 Q3 (third quarter)." Following the termination of contracts of hundreds of recruiters and others working in talent acquisition in August, the company laid off around 1,000 employees in October.

Also read: Google Layoffs: Financial plans ruined, laid off despite good work | Ex-employees share heartbreaking stories

(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)

First Published:Mar 31, 2023 5:43 PM IST