As widely reported, Oracle axed approximately 20,000-30,000 people via email on March 31.
One of the employees who got cut told TechCrunch about the experience that day: “I had this weird feeling in my stomach. I went to log into my VPN and it said, ‘this user no longer exists.’ Then I called my friend and said, ‘Hey, can you see me on Slack?’ And he said, ‘No, your account has been disabled.'”
This person soon received an email stating that their role was terminated immediately. A resignation offer came a few days later. But Oracle’s terms would quickly become a point of contention, and some of the laid-off workers would push back.
Oracle has offered fairly standard Corporate America terms to lay off employees. In exchange for signing a waiver waiving the right to sue, workers received four weeks’ pay for the first year, plus an additional week for a year of service capped at 26 weeks. The company also paid for one month of COBRA insurance.
The catch: Although stock compensation often makes up a good portion of a tech employee’s salary, especially at Oracle, the company didn’t accelerate the RSUs that will soon vest. Shares not vested by the termination date were forfeited.
This is true even for shares awarded as retention incentives or in lieu of salary increases related to promotions. A long-time employee lost $1 million in stock, which was only four months’ worth of profits; RSUs made up about 70% of his compensation. Time reported.
Some workers also found that if they were classified by the company as remote workers and did not work in a state with stronger worker provisions, such as California or New York, the company said they did not qualify for the protections of the NOTICE Act.
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The The NOTICE Act is a law It requires companies making mass layoffs to give workers two months’ notice before letting them go. This is triggered when it affects 50 or more people in one location. Minimum space requirements can be avoided by classifying workers as remote workers.
Some people didn’t know they were classified as remote workers because they were close to the office and worked a hybrid schedule.
Even if they are covered by the NOTICE Act, it doesn’t necessarily extend the severance period, a former Oracle employee said. This is because Oracle includes a two-month WARNING notice charge, plus one week per year, in their existing four-week calculations.
According to a letter seen by TechCrunch, a group of employees briefly attempted to negotiate with Oracle en masse. At least 90 people signed the public petition is calling for the database and cloud computing giant to align with other big tech companies that are laying off mass layoffs in the name of artificial intelligence.
For example, Meta’s severance package started at 16 weeks of base pay, plus two weeks for work each year, and covered COBRA for 18 months, according to an email published by Business Insider.
Microsoft, which extended voluntary retirement offers to longtime employees, provided accelerated stock rights, a minimum of eight weeks’ pay, and one to two additional weeks, depending on rank, for every six months of service. The Seattle Times reported on this.
And Cloudflare, which just cut 20% of its workforce, offered a lump sum dismissal it was equal to base salary until the end of 2026, plus health insurance until the end of the year and accelerated stock rights until August 15. So, if the employee was close to receiving another tranche, they will receive it.
According to an email seen by TechCrunch, Oracle dropped out of the talks. According to the employee, it was a take-it-or-leave-it scenario.
Oracle declined to comment when asked about the terms of the layoffs, the classification of workers as remote workers and the failure of workers’ efforts to negotiate more.
Such a reaction of the company is not a surprise, even for those hoping for negotiations. But it underscores that for all the theoretical high pay (often via stock) and perks that tech workers enjoy when there’s a labor market, there’s little protection when there isn’t.
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