[sai_c]

Does anyone know what "Outside the US, we’ll support employees in line with local practices." exactly means?

In Germany I could imagine it to be "You're fired. Go to the Arbeitsagentur and find a new job". Of course within the legal forewarning period.

[dtech]

Usually EU countries have quite strict rules for layoffs, it's not like US at-will law. In NL mass layoffs like this have to be approved by the unemployment agency, you have to fire people LIFO and you get 1/3rd of your monthly salary for every year you've worked there. The approval is quite difficult to get so usually a higher severance is offered to leave voluntarily.

[type_Ben_struct]

Taking the UK as an example, there are strict laws and processes that need to be followed to implement redundancies: https://www.gov.uk/redundancy-your-rights

[oaiey]

In Germany any lawyer (or the work council) will block you from getting fired (because Google has no legal reason to fire you). What they do here in Germany is to negotiate to mutually void your contract by you accepting a financial package.

So in theory you are right, in practice however, most companies (especially the ones like Google) have to buy you out of your contract.

[izacus]

Also, IIRC, when actual layoffs happen, in Germany they actually need to look at tenure and family status of fired people (e.g. fire people without families first).

[oaiey]

Correct. When it is a legal layoff (they rarely are) then the work council and the company have to develop a plan which includes factors like these.

[mkl95]

At some EU countries mass layoffs at large companies follow their own process, usually with some union involved, etc.

[mejutoco]

I guess it just means they will follow the law in each country.

In the case of Germany I believe the minimum notice period is one month (unless on probation, 2 weeks), but it is common to get 3 months. So they will pay for 3 months.

[jpadkins]

US FTEs were paid 6 months. We will see, but DE will probably get as much.

[parasight]

In Germany, local practices could include severance pay too. It is common for long-time employees to receive significant severance payments when they get fired.

[joshvm]

The notice period might be longer than 60 days, which is pretty generous for the US. In Switzerland, 3 months from either party is not uncommon.

[coredog64]

60 days is the US minimum for a large company doing a layoff (WARN Act). Some states have stricter standards, which is why Amazon had to pay a minimum of 90 days severance in NY state.

[eggie5]

in netherlands, for example, they (Goog) has to negotiate w/ the local-employee-backed Works Council. If they didn't bother setting one up, like Meta NL failed to, it will take about 3 months to do that. Then another 1-2 months for negotiations w/ the council. Then if they come to an agreement (they don't have to) w/ the redundancies and severance the affected can _then_ be notified.

for example, technically the meta layoffs back in November have not even happened here in NL and the affected won't even know until at least March-April!!

[vincnetas]

it means we will do what law requires. Which is quite a low bar to clear :)

[ggm]

C/F musk and his stupidity at twitter. Lawsuits in progress.