Google layoffs: Some employees could get Rs 2.6 crore in severance pay

Google employees in Ireland could receive ix weeks of wages for every year worked at the company

Google employees in Ireland who got the pink slip as part of the company’s mass layoffs could receive more than €300,000 (Rs 2.68 crore) in severance, the Sunday Times reported earlier this week.

Google announced mass layoffs in January this year, announcing that 12,000 workers worldwide would be impacted. CEO Sundar Pichai had said that Google employees in the US would receive a severance package starting at 16 weeks salary plus two weeks for every additional year at Google. “Outside the US, we’ll support employees in line with local practices,” he had written in January.

Now, the Sunday Times has reported that employees in Ireland could receive a severance package that includes six weeks of wages for every year worked at the company. This means that if Google laid off an employee who worked at the tech giant from 2003, which is when it opened its Ireland office, the staffer could receive as much as Rs 2.6 crore in severance pay.

Google has laid off some 240 workers in Ireland, including employees from its sales, technology and support services staff.

Pichai had said the layoffs were necessitated by the economic downturn and required for the long-term health of the company. “The fact that these changes will impact the lives of Googlers weighs heavily on me, and I take full responsibility for the decisions that led us here,” he wrote, noting that das an almost 25-year-old company, it was bound to face periods of slow growth.