Tech giants Amazon and Google have been conducting widespread layoffs in recent months in attempts to cut costs and have a more efficient organization. And while this method worked out for the companies in the United States, they are struggling to implement it in Europe.
According to a recent report published by Bloomberg, Amazon, and Google, as well as some other big U.S. companies working in Europe, are finding it hard to cut jobs. The main reason is that EU labor laws are stricter than the ones in the U.S. and make large-scale layoffs a huge challenge.
The process of bigger job cuts in Europe can’t be completed without completing various steps, including talks and negotiations with employee councils. This means that going through with the layoffs will be much more laborious for tech companies than they envisioned.
Trying to overcome these problems, Amazon and Google have started offering incentives and generous severance packages to affected workers in an attempt to encourage them to leave their jobs voluntarily. For example, Amazon offered some senior managers “as much as one year’s pay,” among other benefits, to try and get them to leave.
“We have been working carefully and individually through each country where reductions are taking place to fully adhere to local legal requirements, which vary per location, are complex, and take time,” a Google spokesperson wrote in the mail when reached out by Bloomberg.
Amazon announced additional layoffs in March that will see the company trim its workforce by 9,000 employees. Google, on the other hand, announced in January that it would cut around 12,000 jobs.