14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft continues its internal reorganization in all divisions across the world, and part of the latest wave of layoffs, the company reportedly decided to fire all staff at its Xbox research and development center in China.
According to reports coming from local media, Microsoft took the sudden decision to lay off all people working for the Chinese Xbox R&D department and relocate all operations to the United States, even though an announcement on this is yet to be provided to the press.
Shenzhen Business News reports that Microsoft set up an ad-hoc meeting with all employees in late October to inform them of the decision to close the local facility and move all operations to the United States, but no prior notice was actually provided to anyone.
Microsoft reportedly offered each worker a severance package of $2,560 (1,800 euro) plus a one-month salary, but all employees actually refused to sign and called for the company to comply with local regulations.
Entrance card disabled without prior notice
Surprisingly, Microsoft decided to disable all entrance cards without any prior notice, so many employees who tried to get inside the buildings in the morning were not allowed to do so.
Some employees have even explained that after doing overtime the day before, the entrance was locked when the last worker left the building, so nobody was allowed to get back in early in the morning.
“Many of us did even did overtime last night,” a company employee was quoted as saying by ZDNet. “But the entrance cards were dysfunctional when we came to office this morning. And the agency workers got their cards confiscated in the afternoon.”
Microsoft’s legal department comes into play
Since the layoff raises more problems than expected, Microsoft’s legal department will try to address all issues and convince employees to sign the dismissal agreement as soon as possible.
According to the same reports, Chinese regulations state that companies who fire people must give a notice one month in advance and pay compensation worth one month of salary. At the same time, the compensation is multiplied by the number of years spent at the company.
As part of the last round of layoffs, Microsoft fired a total of 3,000 workers worldwide, with a new wave expected to be announced by the end of the year.
Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella announced in July that 18,000 employees from all divisions across the world would be let go after the acquisition of Nokia’s Devices and Services which brought 25,000 new workers onboard.