Earlier in 2023, Google announced plans to cut about 30,000 jobs, around 6% of its global workforce, as it seeks to lower costs and sharpen its focus on artificial intelligence (AI).
The cuts come amid slowing economic growth and a technology sector downturn that has led other tech giants to reduce staff as well. Other reasons also include cutting jobs in order to lower operating costs and redirect resources towards high-priority areas like AI.
However, Google hit a snag in its South Korea branch. The tech giant has about 800 full-time employees in South Korea. Despite trying to shrink its workforce since last year, some employees are declining the company’s recommendation to resign, as the Korea JoongAng Daily newspaper reported.
About 10 Google employees from its office in Seoul had accepted the company’s suggestion to resign, the outlet reported. According to the Korean labour-law firm KangNam, the law doesn’t allow employers with five or more workers to dismiss them without just cause.
KangNam’s managing director, Bongsoo Jung, said in a LinkedIn post: “Recommended resignation occurs when an employee resigns at an employer’s suggestion. In most cases, the employees will refuse to resign, as they do not wish to face the uncertainty and difficulty of finding new employment.”
About 100 Google workers in Korea formed a union last year because of mounting concerns over the industrywide layoffs in the US.
“With the ongoing job cuts within the US tech industry, employees have been concerned about their job security and decided to establish a union,” Kim Jong-sub, the head of the Google Korea union, told the Korea Herald last April.
He told The Korea JoongAng Daily that the union planned to secure an agreement with Google to ensure job security and “pursue voluntary resignation” instead of workers accepting the recommendation to resign.
Voluntary resignation means a worker can sometimes get an early retirement bonus.
Google laid off 12,000 employees in early 2023 — about 6% of its head count — and it’s continuing to make job cuts this year.
The company has already cut more than 1,000 workers this month. CEO Sundar Pichai told staff in a memo obtained by The Verge that more layoffs were coming this year.
Reducing costs due to slowing revenue growth
Google’s advertising revenue growth has slowed considerably. In 2022, Google’s ad revenue grew by just 4%, down from 43% growth in 2021.
With rapidly rising inflation also impacting costs, Google is looking to cut expenses. Reducing headcount is an effective way to lower operational costs.
