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Ask HN: Who Is Firing?
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Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?
#132Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?
#133a 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 bus…
Yeah lots of people aren't aware that you can refuse the UK furlough scheme. The company can then fire you but you could then take them to an employment tribunal and sue for unfair dismissal. At certain companies that are using furlough as an excuse to increase profits rather than to prevent job losses then you would probably win your case.
Although obviously you should consult with a proper employment lawyer.
Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
Mandatory exercise? How does that work?
In the UK you are only allowed out once a day for 1 hour maximum
That's not true.
Here's the relevant law: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/350/contents/made
Here's the relevant section of that law: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/350/regulation/6/mad...
Here's the relevant text of that section:
> to take exercise either alone or with other members of their household;
There is nothing in that law that restricts either the number of times you can do that or the amount of time you can spend doing that. There _has_ been guidance issued by various people in government and law enforcement agencies, but that is exactly what it is: guidance. According to the law, you are free to take exercise either alone or with other members of their household, and the law doesn't care how often you do that or for how long.
(Caveat: that's the "England" version of the law; Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own versions; see e.g. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/id?title=Health+Protection+%28... )
Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?
#135Can we say that the layoffs are mostly happening in US ? I can't see that trend in Europe, correct me if I'm wrong.
Why would it be? Europe is getting hit a lot harder and its economy is quickly collapsing. European banks were also weaker and less stress resistant than their US's counterparts so their ability to lend isn't a strong. Same thing for the EU corporations themselves, who are usually more in debt and have less access to non-bank financing (ie public bonds markets). So I'd be really surprised if we saw more lay offs in t…
One reason that it's could be less bad is due to government measures - e.g. in the Netherlands, employers can apply for the government to pay 90% of your salary for a while while they pay the other 10%, so that they can keep employing you until (hopefully) after things start up again.
No idea how that compares to other companies, but if it differs, that's one possible explanation for different results.
Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?
#136Hospitals are having a surprisingly tough time of things. I work for a very famous hospital in a small town in the American midwest, and we've (our IT department, that is) laid off all our contractors and the rest of us have mandatory furloughs coming up too. They're doing everything they can to not let us go, but some of us will probably end up getting sacked. And this is maybe the richest and most well-connected hospital in the entire world! Turns out that when you cancel all elective procedures (not only non-essential surgeries, but things like allergy testing and pediatric audiology work etc.), you can very quickly go from a billion dollars in the black (last year) to an estimated billion dollars in the red (this year). Just brutal.
Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?
#137Playtech 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...
As a Frenchman I can recommend light protests, from home. Instead of burning a few wooden pallets and having a BBQ while blocking the company entrance, you guys could perhaps put a firewall rule to drop all incoming traffic to the VPN and having an online video party.
> you guys could perhaps put a firewall rule to drop all incoming traffic to the VPN
How could you ever trust an employee who did this with their access privileges?
Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?
#138In some companies it feels like they are firing the people that they could not easily get rid of otherwise - cutting of the bottom 25% of staff (based on low performance reviews or personal grudges).
Statistically-speaking, this will disproportionately effect women and minorities (low performance reviews !necessarily= low performance when implicit bias is present, which again, statistically-speaking, it is). Certainly these times suck for everyone, but there go the careers of black, brown, and female millennials with yet another black mark on their CVs before they've hit their 40s.
I seriously doubt whether this will disproportionately effect women and minorities. Certainly not women, as it is pretty hard to change the male/female birth ratio. It might affect them though.
Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
Our government basically hasn't shut down our economy. To quote, "all jobs are essential services".
This is good news, considering they've apparently been also able to reduce the number of new confirmed cases [1]. [1] https://aatishb.com/covidtrends/
Yep. social gatherings / hospitality industry / gyms etc are banned, and anyone who can work from home is doing so, but you still can leave your house for "essential reasons", e.g. exercise, buying takeaway lunch every day. many retail stores and public transport are still functioning.
I think it's our
- low density
- government actually listening to scientists and reacting quickly and non-ideologically.
Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, if you decide not to sign the new contract, and they fire you because of it, you can take them to tribunal for it. It's illegal.
IANAL but it's not always illegal. If a company has a choice between going bust and imposing pay cuts on everyone then that is perfectly legal.
If they follow the procedure in the UK, they can do this AFAIK. Though, they might need to make the position redundant and offer another position at a lower wage. Either way, it's a contract change.