I’ve read a lot about US job transfer to HCL and it all seems to be rather quick.
What rules are there around consulting with employees and taking them through the changes and impacts?
My job will move to HCL but we are working towards 1st June given various rules in Europe that need to be adhered to.
There absolutely should be some degree of protection but concur the French model is very generous.
People, at a minimum, should be treated with respect and allowed a period of time to iron out issues that arise out of any potential transfer. Seeing some of the process here I can’t believe how these things can just be dumped on you like that.
Personally not a socialist. Not even close. But loyalty deserves something.
Does anyone know the total number captured globally in the HCL agreement in regards to number of transfers?
Kai Ryssdal is host of MarketPlace on NPR ( https://www.npr.org/podcasts/381444600/marketplace ) and comments on economic news and trends. He has a saying -- "Capitalism doesn't care if you live or die." Sounds harsh, and it is, but we're seeing seeing it played out in front of our eyes.
Absolutely, life is not fair. But, in the US all of the laws and power reside with the employers to make it a very unfair system.
I do not advocate going as far as certain European countries have gone; but, I do believe employees deserve more rights and protections.
For example, the US the only ‘major’ country where pension plans have bottom tier creditor status should a company go bankrupt. US business executives have become too comfortable shedding pension obligations via bankruptcy court which penalizes employees with significantly reduced retirement income (often too late for them to make-up for it elsewhere) and leaves US taxpayers on the hook for the balance while creditors get their cash back first. In Canada, the pension plan has first dibs on any cash and assets that a company has in bankruptcy to protect taxpayers and employees.
Also, severance should be mandated and be paid at a minimum with health insurance. It often takes 6 to 12 months, even in a good economy for people to find a new job. This would potentially get companies out of the habit of using workforce reduction to improve the bottom line and, again, forcing costs (health insurance and unemployment) on taxpayers.
While I do not have all of the answers; but, I would start at the top. It has been well documented that the loss of independence among Boards has helped to drive skyrocketing Executive salary and unattached such compensation from actual company performance. This has often been at the expense of employees. So, first, the CEO and Chairman roles should always be split for publicly owned companies with the Chairman representing shareholders and the CEO representing the company’s interest, including employees. Checks and balances. As part of this structure, an employee factor must be included in the CEO’s incentive package to tie his interests to the employees. Also, The Board must be truly independent with any single investor restricted to the same portion of the Board as they have in shares.
In Xerox, Icahn and Deason control roughly 15% of the company’s stock. Yet, 8 of the Xerox’s new 9 Board members have worked for or with Icahn and Deason – Cozza (Chairman & Icahn Enterprises), Visentin (CEO), Brown (Motorola officer when Icahn forced the sale of Motorola Solutions to Google), Christodoro (Icahn enterprises), Echevarria (was at Deloitte when Deloitte was the auditor for Icahn enterprises), Graziano (Icahn enterprises), Krongard (board member of Federal-Mogul when Icahn Enterprises acquired them), and Letier (Deason Capital). Now add in the fact that of the 14 current Company Officers, 8 have hired directly hired by or promoted by Icahn, Deason (ACS) or Visentin (HP) - Visentin (CEO, HP), Bandrowczak (COO, HP), Feldman (Americas, HP), Morno-Wade (CHRO, promoted after putting together CEO’s comp package), Osbourn (CFO, became CFO at Time Warner when Icahn launched a proxy war), Pastor (General Counsel, Icahn Enterprises), McHugh (CDO, HP), and Mancini (CAO, ACS). Make no mistake, this is a Board and Executive leadership team that is loyal to one person- Icahn. Xerox the company, its shareholders, and its employees matter little to them. Is this really Capitalism?
And if we are a lucky and socialism runs rampant, we can all bow down to the mighty government and ask for permission to work, to marry, to start a family, to buy a house, to buy a car, to get medical attention (but only if it's really bad), and if we get too old, the government can determine when we die as well.
Sounds utopian!
P.S. Life ain't fair. Deal with it.
Well clearly it would appear that we have a long way to go here in the US. The timelines in France for all this activity is looking out towards 18 months.
A sample of European employment law regarding workforce reductions...
United States: Tips For Dismissing An Employee In The Netherlands
Mondaq Business Briefing
The Netherlands is one of the few places in the world where dismissing an employee requires prior authorization from the government (unless it is done summarily for urgent cause).
In order to dismiss an employee for poor performance or misconduct, an employer must submit an application to the Cantonal Court. This process may take many months, even up to a year or more depending on the backlog. In the case of a redundancy (a job disappearing due to economic or reorganizational reasons), the employer must submit an application to the local Employee Insurance Office (Uitvoeringsinstituut Werknemersverzekeringen (or UWV). This process usually takes between six weeks to two months; but, can take longer. Both processes require the employer to legally justify the dismissal with evidence, and both allow the employee to present his or her side of the case.
However, obtaining authorization is not a foregone conclusion; therefore, many dismissals are achieved through the negotiation of a mutually agreed upon separation agreement. Some factors that can affect the negotiations are the strength of the employer's case and how much the employee wants to avoid discharge and/or bargain for a larger severance package.
Here are a few tips to consider when discharging an employee in the Netherlands:
Tip 1: Best Possible Case
When negotiating with the employee, if the employer looks unlikely to receive authorization, the employee has less incentive to be reasonable. Therefore, it makes sense to be as prepared with your dismissal arguments when discussing with the employee, as when applying to the UWV.
Tip 2: Sick Leave
Approaching an employee to discuss a mutual separation agreement in the case of a redundancy may induce an employee to go out on sick leave, which would prevent the dismissal from proceeding. Employers are responsible for paying employees sick pay for two (and possibly three) years.
Therefore, in the case of a redundancy dismissal, the employer may want to file the basic information of the application for dismissal (including basic information about the parties) in order to stop the clock and preempt sick leave from delaying the process while the employer discusses a mutual agreement. The employer can then use the next couple of weeks to gather documentary evidence in case the negotiations regarding the separation agreement fail, and the application needs to be completed. (If the dismissal is due to a redundancy, then the employee being on sick leave will not prevent the process from moving forward.)
Tip 3
Employers may want to put an employee on "garden leave" (not reporting to work but still receiving pay) while going through this process, but doing so without the employee's consent is not permitted and
could negatively affect its case with the authorities. In addition, if authorization is denied and negotiations fail to yield a mutual separation agreement, the employee will remain employed, and the employer may be forced to figure out how to reintegrate the employee into the workforce.
Tip 4
When planning the timing of the severance payment in a mutual agreement, do not forget that the employee has the right to revoke the agreement during the first 14 days post-execution.
Ms Rebecca Marks
Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak, Stewart
If paperwork not back by Monday then you resign and your last day is April 5th, you get no severence, you cannot collect unemployment and your medical benefits end that day, they crossed their t's and dotted their i's on this one, only certain people from cores got badged over so other employees at work are fine right now, my core only had admin and some customer care reps badged over.
So what happens if no one gets paperwork in by Monday?
You all take time to speak with employment lawyer (maybe even together)
If no one returns it and Xerox/HCL hold to what they’ve been threatening/saying; the cores doors are shuttered. Shuttered: No money coming in from customers, no answering or keeping customer contract terms: etc. Gotta believe if you joined together; there would be some give on the timeline; especially since paperwork was so late.
Did you call your state labor department on the short timeline and report that. as a formal complaint?
We were basically blindsided, told on Tuesday our jobs were being badged over, weren't given any "real" answers, we're told go or resign, we're told "you won't get a severance and you can't file for unemployment because the Xerox lawyers made sure if that", we didn't get offer paperwork until late Wednesday night and that left no time to consult a lawyer, so we have to get the signed paperwork which honestly sounds like we are signing all rights away back to them monday, they wouldn't answer anyone's questions to the point where presidents of cores had to step in, the whole thing is shady, has left a bad taste in everyone's mouths, so to answer you, be prepared because it's a real sh--ty thing to be done to anyone and the sad part is, is that Xerox couldn't care less!