Playtech in London isn't firing but cut all employee salaries by 10% across the board. The CEO just awarded himself a 30mil bonus: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/playtech-plan-to-pay-boss...
Corporate looting on the cusp of a recession. Classy
Ask HN: Who Is Firing?
91–100 of 593 posts
Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
In UK employees are more likely to get furloughed, where they are paid 80% of their salary from the government, do not work but keep their job.
In the Netherlands similar. Government pays 90%, employer the other 10% and can't fire anyone.
Sweden too, but government "only" pays 60% IIRC. Employer pays the rest but there has also been some ease on how much tax an employer has to pay for each employee.
Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?
#93a quote i remembered from twitter: "This is the best time to get rid of employees". a startup based in London just fired 10% of their workforce. all were given two options: government's furlough scheme where the state pays 80% of the salary, or outright dismissal. interestingly, half chose to quit.
Under UK employment laws, you can't just force your staff to take a 20% pay cut without their consent, even if you're using the furlough scheme. And as others have pointed out, it may have been more than 20% in practice, if it was based on the furlough scheme where a cap applies. A lot of places that are genuinely up against it because of the virus are asking staff to take that hit voluntarily to help protect the business and their jobs, but that's different.
If you make them redundant instead then you must give them a redundancy payment as well. However, this only protects employees after two years and in any case it's capped at a low level relative to typical salaries in fields like tech, so this might not have been worth much to the staff at a startup. Many employers do offer more than this voluntarily, but I wouldn't necessarily assume any startup did.
Maybe the staff who chose to leave were more concerned about the future viability of the business, an extended pause in their career development, or both. Or maybe they really were offered voluntary redundancy on favourable terms.
Curiously, just yesterday the UK government announced some new measures aimed directly at supporting startups, particularly tech startups in their early stages that aren't yet making money. Apparently at least someone in government recognises the business model and feels it will be better to protect that part of our economy during the downturn, which is a remarkably enlightened view given how badly successive governments in the UK have treated small businesses in the past.
Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?
#94Playtech in London isn't firing but cut all employee salaries by 10% across the board. The CEO just awarded himself a 30mil bonus: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/playtech-plan-to-pay-boss...
Well... That's an overhyped media headline. In reality it is a stock based compensation over the next 5 years, based on performance of the stock price, capped at a maximum of 30 million. So it was already very unlikely he was going to get 30m (= 6 per year) pre-crisis. And given the current stock market he is probably going to get nothing for the coming two years or longer.
Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not looking to be fired but this whole working from home business is getting me down (been WFH for 6 weeks now). Video calls with friends and co-workers doesn't cut it, plus the 1 hour mandatory exercise. I'd rather change jobs and be outside chopping wood or something that is "productive".
Mandatory exercise? How does that work?
In the UK you are only allowed out once a day for 1 hour maximum
Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?
#96Playtech in London isn't firing but cut all employee salaries by 10% across the board. The CEO just awarded himself a 30mil bonus: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/playtech-plan-to-pay-boss...
It's more than a little misleading to say that the CEO 'just' did this when the article is from 2019 Dec 4, so before the pandemic.
Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?
#97Stats of last week layoffs at Lightbend (Akka, Scala) right after 25MM funding round https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22854494
Lightbend WAS a vendor to a lot of companies that were affected by COVID-19 related layoffs. Some of these companies like Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings are part of industries that are virtually nonexistent right now. Some of those companies are also based in Europe like SwissCom and UniCredit. The shutdown of our borders has made it difficult to maintain the same roles they were originally contracted to fill, resulting in cancelled contracts. Not as much fishy as it is obvious to me that lost/cancelled contracts equals less money to pay employees. Less money === less jobs.
Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?
#98Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?
#99Playtech in London isn't firing but cut all employee salaries by 10% across the board. The CEO just awarded himself a 30mil bonus: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/playtech-plan-to-pay-boss...
Wow, I didn't think any developed country allowed employers to legally cut an employees salary.
Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?
#100Can we say that the layoffs are mostly happening in US ? I can't see that trend in Europe, correct me if I'm wrong.