Google layoffs: 250 employees walk out in protest after colleagues get laid off

250 Google employees in Zurich walked out of their offices in protest and solidarity with those laid off by the company worldwide. The employees are calling on the company to refrain from further layoffs. In mid-January, Google's parent company Alphabet announced plans to lay off approximately 12,000 employees worldwide. 

While affected Google employees in the US and Canada have already been informed, it remains unclear how many will be laid off at other locations. The walkout at Google Zurich is a protest against these mass layoffs and a show of solidarity with colleagues whose employment has already been terminated. 

"We Googlers stand up for each other. The mass layoffs without obvious economic necessity are not acceptable," says a Google employee known to syndicom. The employees at Google Zurich are demanding that the company engage in dialogue with workers to thoroughly and seriously examine alternatives to layoffs. If redundancies cannot be avoided, they expect the company to minimize the consequences for those affected with an acceptable social plan. This is particularly important for many non-EU nationals working at Google Zurich whose right of residence in Switzerland expires if they are dismissed. 

Syndicom is the Swiss trade union for the IT sector and has a significant number of members at Google Zurich. 

Google Layoffs 

In mid-January 2023, Google’s parent company Alphabet announced plans to lay off approximately 12,000 employees worldwide. The job losses constitute around 6 percent of Google’s global workforce. The layoffs have affected all geographies and even some ‘star performers’ were not able to escape Google’s latest layoffs. The layoffs have been met with criticism from employees for lack of support, transparency and communication.

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