EDS Layoff Timing Very Costly to Workers

from the bad-timing dept

theodp writes "EDS picked a pivotal day to lay off 300 workers. Had it let them go just a day earlier, on July 1, EDS would have had to pay the severance package it promised when it acquired the employees as part of its purchase of a Sabre unit. But because EDS cut their jobs on July 2, the day after the one-year severance contract expired, the former Sabre workers will receive 2-4 weeks of salary instead of a month's salary plus as much as a month's additional pay for each year served. The one day delay reduced a laid-off Sabre employee's severance from $68,000 to $3,000 (NY Times, registration required). All EDS employees released on the morning of July 2 were also told that their medical coverage would end at midnight. EDS, who paid CEO Dick Brown more than $55 million last year, says the former Sabre workers' severance agreement had no bearing on the timing of the cuts, although an e-mail message EDS management sent to supervisors on June 28 said that "no separations or separation meetings should occur prior to July 2nd." "
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    Withheld, 29 Jul 2002 @ 6:33am

    More costly than the article says...

    A couple of good friends of mine in Toronto
    were amongst these layoffs. Were they deadwood?
    Nope! EDS layed off it's bid and proposal team!
    "We're not in need of any new business right now,
    we'll outsource your positions when needed."

    Yah EDS, I'll be buying your stock real soon...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      SB, 29 Jul 2002 @ 9:59am

      THINK, MCFLY

      If these morons' TERMINATIONS were DELAYED, in order to get around some severance rule, that means they WERE KEPT ON THE PAYROLL LONGER THAN WOUKD HAVE BEEN. FREE MONEY, IDIOTS

      You should be THANKING EDS for preserving your job for another 6 months. It's clear you would have been CUT long ago otherwise.

      I'm sure the INCOME from staying on the payroll, in many cases, exceeded the pidling severance they'd have gotten anyways.

      Of course, its always easiest to cite the extreme 68,000 hard luck case. I bet 90% of workers made out by staying on the payroll

      INGRATES
      MORONS

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 29 Jul 2002 @ 11:02am

    GREEDY BS

    What a bunch of GREEDY CORPORATE BULLSHIT. It's breach of contract, basically, to weasel out of paying severance that the company had agreed to pay. It's even worse that they LIE and say that the date of the layoffs had nothing to do with the severance deal. I think eventually people are going to get SICK of this money-grubbing BULLSHIT, and you're going to see mobs of angry folks going door-to-door and dragging these execs out of their offices and through the streets!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 29 Jul 2002 @ 4:14pm

    Why murder should be legal

    It's people like that Dick Brown (what an apropriate name) that the world could due without. This whore was paid $55 million dollars to do... what. Instead of trying to find a way to survive on say $50 million dollars a year he thought it would be best to single handedly destroy 300 families in this economy. He deserves to die.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Dick Brown, 20 Aug 2007 @ 6:58pm

    Layoffs

    EDS is at it again. Laying off 600 workers at Weyerhaeuser due to losing the account to rival HP.

    HP will provide support with 600 workers from India.

    WARN notices are comming out this week.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    james, 26 Mar 2010 @ 11:07am

    EDS has such a bad reputation for bullying management, lying sales people, non delivery etc. I am just amazed that any company would want to do business with them. I am still surprised that HP wanted them, but if HP are as bad as EDS with their people management, then they deserve each other. The pity of it is that it is always the people at the lower levels that get the pain. Management looks out for itself, not its staff or customers, despite the rhetoric. People at EDS are not assets, just expenses.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.