Dive Brief:
- More United Kingdom employees of IBM may soon face layoffs, an official at the European Works Council (EWC) warned on Tuesday.
- IBM first announced its "workforce rebalancing" for European employees in late January. Those layoffs affected about 400 people in IBM's Global Technology Services, Global Business Services and UK Labs, according to the International Business Times.
- One analyst estimates that around 14,000 staff worldwide could be laid off by the end of the summer, according to the ChannelRegister.
Dive Insight:
IBM has provided varying figures for the layoffs over the past few weeks, but EWC has criticized Big Blue for a lack of consistent information.
"The total foreseen headcount impact of this second reduction is almost 50% higher than the first round of job cuts," said Marc Born, secretary of the EWC, in an interview with IBT. "The combined impact of both restructuring actions varies by country, but primarily Western-European countries are confronted with reductions which sometimes exceed 10% to 15% of current staff."
In some cases of layoffs, IBM giving employees the minimum notice and severance packages, Born said.
IBM began laying off workers in early March as part of its strategy to reinvent its core business. Nearly one-third of IBM’s U.S. workforce is being "rebalanced," according to a report from the International Business Times. The company employs an estimated 378,000 employees worldwide.
IBM has been looking to build its cognitive computing, cloud and IoT businesses while shifting away from its older business platforms. Some believe the layoffs are a sign the company is not changing its business model fast enough to remain profitable.