Thread regarding VMware layoffs

I'm also curious about this... I'm really receiving very different opinions around me, some people say it will be like the US, some others that will be much much more (even 2 months per year worked) and this is the first time I find myself in this situation.
I think @1tng+1iNBNRNk better explained the situation, and the fact is that in the EU every country has different legislations/protections ecc... but in general severance due to layoff is quite low everywhere but with this the company will have several limitations on future hirings and needs to go through a very complicated and long process so they usually prefer to pay more to avoid this. How much more? Noone knows, can be maybe even negotiable?

UK redundancy pay up to 30k isn‘t taxable

Here's the thing ... statutory varies between countries. But in UK it's

• half a week’s pay for each full year you were under 22
• one week’s pay for each full year you were 22 or older, but under 41
• one and half week’s pay for each full year you were 41 or older.

For UK, again, pay however is capped at £571.

I left already but for the sake of calculation - I earned £1900 per week (UK government takes weekly pay for calculation) so in my case my total redundancy pay would be after 5 years of service

"Your statutory redundancy payment is £4,282.50 (£4,455 in Northern Ireland)." <-- used government calculator.

That's taxable of course ! So the bottom line would be less than a single month's wage after tax. Also bear in mind a lot of countries in Europe get paid car allowance etc. - whilst paid as salary - it is not included in any calculation (same with pension and bonus and % pay raises). Not that it would make a difference due to the limit.

The thing is though - which is why I don't think they go for statutory - is that redundancies have very specific employment laws in Europe.

Again it changes from country to country but in a nutshell here in the UK

1. There has to be a consultation period of 90 days
2. Company has to make sure all options are exhausted and your skills cannot be translated any further and there's essentially no 'future' for your skills in the company
3. They cannot re-hire into the same position for approx. 6 months.

Even if they change job spec and role name in front of a judge you will have a damn good chance if you find out they started re-hiring ...

Bottom line is - they wouldn't want that ... it is easier to throw money at people to make them leave and shut up about it.

So BCOM wouldn't want to be tier to any law - they just want to get rid the cost and the best way to do is to just ignore redundancies and pay more / better severances and if you don't sign ? You probably find yourself in a situation where they find SOMETHING they can base your firing / redundancy on.

And take employment benefits ? Don't kid yourself. Here in the UK it doesn't matter how much you earned - statutory employment benefits are £77 per week ... Could luck make a living from that - or survive even for that matter.

So you got two choices

1. Risk to get laid off - take severance and move on
2. Move now

1 week per year will be weird. In most countries if you accept severance you will loose unenployment benefits which in some countries in Europe can be quite high. I would rather prefer to take them rather than few weeks of severance. I would imagine a minimum of 1 month per year like the last person wrote but noone can know!

I‘d count on statutory minimums - there are many more redundancies expected by the market than in previous acquisitions and i‘m not so convinced of the generosity of wither company faced with thosw numbers. The only thing I‘d say that the US experience will be indicative - and then the TUPE/Arbeitsrat protections might give the EU folks a few more months of notice as regulatory employment consultations will take place following the acquisition…

A little more. Depends on how long you're employed with the company. Like 1m for every year + couple months in advance.