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Intel Businesses

Intel Offers Irish Staff a Three-Month Break From Being Paid (theregister.com) 49

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
guest reader writes: Chipmaker Intel is offering staff in Ireland the opportunity to take three months' leave from their jobs, with the catch being that it is unpaid. The move is part of cost saving measures at the company. According to various reports in the Irish media, thousands of workers at Intel's manufacturing plant in Leixlip, County Kildare, were offered three months' voluntary unpaid leave in a bid to lower overheads.

The move follows Intel's announcement in October that it planned to lay off an unspecified number of employees worldwide, and even ditch some product lines, in response to a worsening economic situation. These plans are part of a massive reduction in spending, with Intel looking slash $3 billion annually starting next year and by between $8 billion and $10 billion by 2025. However, this isn't going to stop the chipmaker from continuing to invest in building new chip manufacturing plants, as Intel confirmed this week when the company reiterated its commitment to manufacturing expansions in the US and in Europe that are set to cost billions of dollars. In an official statement sent to The Register, Intel said it was taking steps to reduce costs and improve efficiencies detailed during its recent earnings call, while protecting the investments needed to position the company for long-term growth.
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Intel Offers Irish Staff a Three-Month Break From Being Paid More

Intel Offers Irish Staff a Three-Month Break From Being Paid

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  • Surely they'll be welcomed back... (Score:3)

    by tysonedwards ( 969693 ) on Friday December 02, 2022 @04:48PM (#63097518)
    After all, if you're not deemed essential for three months, what's the chance you'll be valued long term upon your return?
    • They don't even have to send the guys around to ask "What would you say you do here?"

    • After all, if you're not deemed essential for three months, what's the chance you'll be valued long term upon your return?

      Even in well-established companies like Intel, what are the chances anyone is still valued "long term" anymore?

      I mean seriously. Worked in a manufacturing company that had zero problems letting 30-year company veterans go right along with the 30-day noobs. Business is business. Only place you might still find loyalty is the mafia.

      • My uncle got offered something similar, a break from being paid starting today and continuing indefinitely. The security guys will escort you out.
      • When letting people go, companies hire firms like McKinsey. The CEO tells the employees that the board demanded it. Then McKinsey identifies redundancies which usually is little more than looking at employee cost.

        Old dogs usually cost more and frankly are less tech savvy. And they also believe the unions should be allowed to bully the company. Younger workers with a year or two of experience offer a better ROI and in a changing world experience is a hinderance.

        Young people aren't cheap, but you can indiscri

    • "Three month break from being paid" = "You're fired for three months"

    • This isn't the USA. In the rest of the world there are things known as unfair dismissal laws.

      Also it's quite laughable that you think anyone at any organisation is "deemed essential". If you're so essential that the organisation can't cope with you being gone for 3 months, run. It's a organisation that has bad succession planning, and one that will likely tie you down in your role preventing you from moving elsewhere or being promoted.

      Yes those type of toxic shithole places exist.

    • +1 for the funny comment, and you make a decent point.

      OTOH, I do not know how things work in Ireland exactly, but in most states in mainland Europe employers cannot just fire people at will like that. They have the burden of proof to prove that the employee is unproductive, and if they fail to do that courts can (and very much do) reinstate employees in their positions. I have seen it happening in European branches of multinational/american-led companies.

      If the company has financial problems and can't pay e

      • I worked for a startup that shut down (yeah, I know - surprise surprise). The American employees were all gone in about 6 months (would have been sooner except the WARN Act resulted in waves of layoffs, 20% at a time), but the Ireland office stayed open for, I think, about a year. I heard it was due to their worker protection laws.
  • I'm sure they would appreciate that.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by kellin ( 28417 )

      Bet this is just an excuse to lay them off without severance..

      • Worse yet. This might shake loose some employees and let Intel get rid of them without firing them, potentially avoiding having to pay unemployment benefits. (At least, that's how this would work in the USA.)

    • I'm sure they would appreciate that.

      Given what 99% of other struggling companies will be offering as the permanent alternative, in a global economy that seems to be rapidly dialing back, they may appreciate it quite a bit actually.

    • Except that they are not unemployed, so aren't eligible for unemployment benefits (I assume, not being intimately familiar with Irish law). However, if they just made them redundant, then they'd be liable to a minimum payment of two weeks gross pay for each year of service [crushell.ie], possibly more if they have a better employment agreement.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tsqr ( 808554 )

        Except that they are not unemployed, so aren't eligible for unemployment benefits

        That may be a faulty assumption [dol.gov] as far as the US is concerned. I couldn't find any definitive information for Ireland, but their employment laws generally appear to favor employees more than those in the US.

      • Re:"Hey want to be unemployed temporarily?" (Score:5, Informative)

        by Local ID10T ( 790134 ) <ID10T.L.USER@gmail.com> on Friday December 02, 2022 @07:10PM (#63097936) Homepage

        It's called a "work furlough" and is eligible for unemployment benefits in Ireland under the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme.

        • Thanks. Marginally more attractive then, although if it were me, I'd be spending the three months looking for another gig. In fact, if I were working for Intel at all I'd be looking for another gig about now.

        • If I felt certain my job would be there when I got back and could claim unemployment as you're saying then I wouldnt even think twice about taking a deal like that. I also dont have kids and am able to live well within my means though so the drop in income from moving to unemployment wouldnt me so bad as what I would likely get would be enough for me to live on, just not to save. Meanwhile I am a person who strongly values their free time and I could have a ton of fun and live a lot of good living with thre

  • It's a... a... break! A break from being paid! Yeah, that's the ticket! [tenor.com]

    • What you should do as an employee: "I'm going to show up anyway unless I'm fired. And if I'm not paid, I'm going to sue for wages."

      Force them to fire you/state you are redundant, allowing you to claim unemployment.

  • Seems like a tricky sell (Score:5, Insightful)

    by fuzzyfuzzyfungus ( 1223518 ) on Friday December 02, 2022 @04:58PM (#63097548) Journal
    I see no reason why Intel can't give it a try and see if they get any takers among people sufficiently well off that they interpret not getting paid and not working as 'vacation' rather than 'unemployment'; but I suspect that a push toward the direction of demanding just-in-time labor whenever it is convenient for them and expecting people to just wait for them at other times won't go over desperately well.

    There are people you can hire on a strictly temporary basis to cover specific requirements. They're called contractors and they normally cost substantially more per hour than regular employees do because they are available on comparatively short notice and willing to sell time in small increments, rather than at a discount but only in bulk. Expecting to pay full time employee rates for contractor flexibility is either going to be resented or rejected depending on who has the upper hand in negotiations.
    • I don't know. Worked pretty well for Uber. And Unions are so weak after Thatcher and Reagan that workers have fuck all bargaining power.
      • You're getting even dumber.

        No, really.

      • People seem to forget how fucked the UK was during the 1970s because of very strong unions with unreasonable demands and being run as their own fiefdoms.

        What Thatcher did was hard, but also arguably better for the country than the unions continuing being run like mafia gangs with seemingly unlimited power into the late 1980s and 1990s.

    • If they take it, it's cheaper than laying them off and having to pay severance and unemployment (or however it works in Ireland). The real layoffs are coming, but they'll cost a lot more. Why not do this first?

    • Doesn't seem like a tricky sell at all. I know plenty of people who would love to take a sabbatical, and several people (including a family member) who did, a process which involved quite a bit of negotiation with their employer.

      No need to go all "contractor" on the problem. That would be throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Sometimes you want the flexibility to lower wages and your employees may want some time off and its a potential win-win.

  • If fired you get severance and unemployment.
  • To avoid paying unemployment benefits for those they lay off. If you voluntarily separate, no unemployment pay. Also, in Ireland, employment contracts are the norm. You agree to sign up for a year and they agree to employ you for a year. This offer is almost certainly structured such that taking the 3 months ends your current contract. If they do invite you back, it will almost certainly be at less favorable terms than you enjoyed before.

    • Re:It's just a ruse (Score:4, Informative)

      by cianduffy ( 742890 ) on Friday December 02, 2022 @07:03PM (#63097914)
      No, that type of employment contract is not "the norm" in Ireland. At all. Indeed, it isn't even legal to have that type of contract and roll it over repeatedly - if an employer does that, the contract becomes considered permanent. Permanent employment contracts are the norm in Ireland. Taking unpaid leave does not impact that at all. You would resume employment at your previous terms, or you would get a five figure sum of compensation from the Workplace Relations Commission.

    • That is not how any of that works. Ireland isn't the USA. There are employee protection laws in place. A company offering you unpaid time off and either firing your when you come back or making you sign a new contract would get royally arsefucked by the courts.

  • I bet they could save more money if one or two executives missed a bonus. They wouldn't suffer any drop in their standard of living either. Why do you suppose they haven't done that then?

  • This doesn't seem unreasonable though... as long as it's straight up voluntary. Ideally, benefits would also continue unabated - i.e. health benefits. They can ask. Why not?

  • Working for a local college was glorious thanks to the four-day weeks which are a major reason retirees go into education for their second job.

    Instead of a disruptive three month absence how about optional longer weekends?

  • please... it's NOT the US. (Score:5, Informative)

    by sdinfoserv ( 1793266 ) on Friday December 02, 2022 @06:51PM (#63097868)
    In the entire developed world, only the US has the employer carry the benefits. There is no such thing as "unemployment insurance" or "company health care" in other countries . The State pays these things. If a worker becomes unemployed, they fall back on State Aid, not unemployment. That's what you get when rich and corporations are actually required to pay taxes. There's no insurance company extracting another layer of "profit" from the health system and dictating what your doctor can or can't do. The US system is completely rigged to extract money from the working citizenry in order to give corporations and ultra wealthy tax boycotts. Tax breaks do not, and never have spurred economic development. They only exacerbate the wealth disparity, crumbling infrastructure, an host of other social maladies the US is experiencing. (homelessness, the opioid crisis, the mental health crisis, gun violence, the rise of fascist groups, etc).

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by tsqr ( 808554 )

      There is no such thing as "unemployment insurance" or "company health care" in other countries . The State pays these things.

      In Ireland, the unemployment compensation program is called "Jobseekers Benefit". From Jobseekers Benefit [citizensinformation.ie]:"To qualify for Jobseeker's Benefit, you must pay Class A, H or P PRSI contributions. Class A is the one paid by most private sector employees. Class H is paid by soldiers, reservists and temporary army nurses, who do not qualify for Jobseeker's Benefit until they have left the army. In other words, yes Ireland has unemployment insurance, and the premiums appear to be paid by employees, not employers.

      As

  • Force the CEO (Score:3)

    by anonymouscoward52236 ( 6163996 ) on Friday December 02, 2022 @06:58PM (#63097888)

    They should force the CEO to take this deal. Take it out of their golden parachute too so it hurts. The company will save all sorts of money that way!

  • ...I think most would call it a furlough. That's what IBM calls it and I went through upwards of about two months of furloughs working for them as part of a one-year "contract"---a week here, two weeks there, etc. Never again.

  • ...a free kick in the nuts.

  • Boil the frog slowly.

    They want to save 3 months which is 60 working days.
    60 working days is equal to 60 weeks with 4 working days instead of 5.
    60 weeks is a little bit more than 1 year.
    As bonus, Intel could keep this form of savings forever.

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