Can someone explain the process. I am here FTL, it's fairly simple here, the employment is at will and both parties can divorce at any point in time. The law mandates that layoffs at a single location that go over certain headcount treshold (e.g. 50 folks) have to be reported to the state 60 days in advance. That's pretty much it, you cannot discriminate when you are selecting folks who will be let go based on gender or race too. So, how protected are you overseas?
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The WARN act applies to the States though, it's different in Emea depending on which country you're working in. The main tech-support centre is in Ireland where 20 people will be made redundant. This number of employees is over 10% of the centre, hence the drawn out process that will last until April. If it had been under 10%, they could have started individual redundancies. I have a feelin they didn't realise this before they started as the current situation is a joke.
Just to clarify, the 60 day notice only applies if the number laid off at a site is 50-499 and the number is 33% or over of the workforce at that site. If the number is 500 or more only then does the percentage not matter.
Citrix could layoff 300 at a site with a 1000 employees and not trigger the WARN Act (60 day notice) since it would only be 30% of the workforce. However, they could not lay off 500 at a site with 1500 workers (same 30%) since when laying off 500 or more workers the percentage doesn't matter.
It varies a bit on a country by country basis but most countries in Europe have more protection for workers than you have in the US. Once layoffs are over a certain size some additional legal frameworks make also be a factor in some countries. So even though the affected people have already been identified across Europe typically people cannot just be told that their individual role has been cut as there is a whole legal framework that needs to be followed through before this can be formalised and this varies from country to country. For instance a number of people here in Dublin already know that they have been laid off but will still be on the payroll until possibly mid-May! All employees will officially be "made redundant" on the same day however before that happens there is a framework where company representatives need to meet with employee representatives to discuss how this will happen and this process must run for at least 4 weeks...