Meta offers voluntary exits to employees in France
What's the story
Meta, the tech giant led by Mark Zuckerberg, has joined the likes of Microsoft and Google in offering voluntary exits to select employees. The move comes amid a wave of layoffs in the tech industry over the last few months. According to French publication La Lettre, Meta is giving its employees in France an option for voluntary exit with a severance package.
Exit details
What we know about Meta's VEO plan
Meta's voluntary exit offer (VEO) is said to affect around 100 of its 300 employees in France. However, the specific roles impacted by this plan remain unclear.
Unlike Microsoft and Google, where the decision was left to individual employees, Meta's plan is based on a collective contractual termination procedure (RCC) under French labor law.
This allows companies to negotiate a voluntary reduction in headcount with trade unions.
Application process
Applications open till November 5
Employees interested in Meta's voluntary exit offer have till November 5 to submit their applications.
It is not yet clear if this exit offer would be extended to other regions where Meta operates, considering the company employs around 66,000 people worldwide.
Notably, in 2023, Meta had also signed a collective contractual termination agreement in France that was expected to see about 88 employees leave from a workforce of some 350 at the time.
Severance details
Proposed terms of the exit offer
The proposed collective contractual termination procedure has been under negotiation since July.
Under Meta's proposed terms, employees would get 2.15 months of salary for every year of service and 10 months of mobility leave paid at 80% of their gross salary.
The company is also considering providing support for professional retraining or starting a business as part of the exit package.
Workforce changes
Wider job cuts at Meta
The proposed exit offer comes after a wider round of job cuts at Meta.
In April, the company had announced plans to lay off some 8,000 employees or 10% of its global workforce.
A month later, it decided to move 7,000 employees to AI-related roles.
Notably, Zuckerberg has previously said that AI now enables work that used to require large teams to be done by one person.