Intel offers Irish staff a three-month break from being paid
- Reference: 1669984206
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/12/02/intel_ireland/
- Source link:
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 [1]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.
[2]
However, this isn't going to stop the chipmaker from continuing to invest in building new chip manufacturing plants, as Intel [3]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.
[4]
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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.
"Retaining our manufacturing talent is a key element of positioning Intel for long-term growth. Voluntary time-off programs allow us an opportunity to reduce short-term costs and offer employees attractive time off options," the statement continued.
[6]Irish government seeks power to bar 'high risk vendors' from telecoms networks
[7]Cost of living crisis less of problem for tech pro retirees than others
[8]'What's the point of me being in my office, just because they want to see me in the office?'
[9]Apple to compel workers to spend '3 days a week' in the office
That recent earnings call revealed that during the three months ended September 30, Intel's revenue was down 20 percent year-on-year to $15.3 billion, while its net income also declined 85 percent to $1 billion.
Intel's Leixlip campus is located on the site of a former stud farm and is understood to employ more than 4,500 people. It had previously undergone an upgrade project that turned the site into a key location for producing chips using Intel's 14nm process technology.
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Earlier this year, Intel said that it was planning to spend [11]an additional €12 billion ($12.6 billion) on doubling the manufacturing space at Leixlip in order to bring Intel 4 process technology, previously known as Intel's 7nm process, to Europe as well as to expand its foundry services. ®
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/28/intel_layoffs_results/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Y4ovM05bLmKIIa5Bwj@IBwAAABQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/29/intel_the_economy_is_bad/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y4ovM05bLmKIIa5Bwj@IBwAAABQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y4ovM05bLmKIIa5Bwj@IBwAAABQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/31/irish_government_risky_vendor_ban/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/12/cost_of_living_crisis_for/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/29/wfh_report/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/16/apple_office_mandate/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y4ovM05bLmKIIa5Bwj@IBwAAABQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://www.intel.co.uk/content/www/uk/en/newsroom/news/eu-news-2022-release.html
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
We were obviously typing the same thing at the same time.
Are they allowed pursue other paid employment during that time?
Unemployment in Ireland is at a 20 year low, these are largely skilled and experienced people, 3 months contracting would be a nice earner if Intel doesn't exclude that or have some anti-competitive clause in their contracts (which I know is unenforceable in Irish law, but could matter if they go back to work for Intel).
Re: Are they allowed pursue other paid employment during that time?
Is there an alternative employer to Intel in Ireland that could accommodate such niche skills?
Re: Are they allowed pursue other paid employment during that time?
>employer to Intel in Ireland that could accommodate such niche skills
But Ireland is under the boot of a ruthless Brussels bureaucracy - so all those workers can also work in Netherlands, or Germany, or France or wherever Intel/TSMC etc build their fabs.
Re: Are they allowed pursue other paid employment during that time?
Unemployment is even lower in the UK. It makes you wonder how Spain, Italy and Spain can be so different.
Re: Are they allowed pursue other paid employment during that time?
I've often wondered about that, I saw 25% (twenty five not two point five) "youth" unemployment figure for Spain for example.
Thats a lot.
Could the statistics be wrong or differently classified?
I thought Eurostat had clear rules on this kind of thing.
On the main point of the story, how long before the employee pays the employer to work somewhere?!
Intel's generosity is literally startless.
While it's not much of an offer kudos to them for at least trying to come up with a way to keep people instead of firing them as fast as possible.
Something is going very wrong with Intel when they start to deploy dubious employment practices that would normally be associated with the likes of Oracle and IBM.
Temporary layoffs aren’t a new thing.
No, but it's not normally a signal for your best staff to stick around
Surely, the Irish government has some say over this, given the taxpayer funding they've generously allocated through the years? It seems like that should come with attached conditions.
They don't care. If they cared about the tax payer they would've gone after Apple and the billions they owed the country.
Don't worry, employees will pay all this funding back in their taxes*
* one day
... when that amount will barely buy you a coffee.
Are the employees allowed to work for other companies during that unpaid break and do they have some guarantee to be employed by intel for some specified time after those three voluntary break months?
If not that's not really much of an offer, firing someone is giving them as much unpaid break time as they want (or even more if they are unable to find the next job quick enough).