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Indeed Refuses Voluntary Redundancy Requests For 175 At-Risk Staff

By Nithya Bose in Business News, posted June 3, 2024

Job platform Indeed has been criticized for allegedly ignoring employee representatives during consultations about potential redundancies.

The company is in talks with 175 employees who risk losing their jobs after announcing a second round of global layoffs.

Despite ongoing severance talks, up to 70 employees across three main divisions are expected to be let go.

An internal survey revealed that nearly 50 percent of Indeed workers would consider opting for voluntary redundancies.

However, the Financial Services Union (FSU), Ireland's trade union for financial and tech sector workers, claims the company refuses to offer this option.

Gareth Murphy, Head of Industrial Relations and Campaigns at the FSU, said: “It is nearly halfway through the consultation process at Indeed and the company will still not consider voluntary severance as a way of avoiding the worst aspect of redundancy.

“Interest in voluntary is spread across all three segment areas. The employer could well achieve this by voluntary means. Instead, they are adamant that they select who will go.”

“Indeed does not appear to be listening adequately to either ourselves or the employee representatives in their consultation process"

Indeed, CEO Chris Hyam, in an email announcing the latest layoffs, said: “We are not yet set up for sustainable growth.

“Our organization is still too complex, we still have significant duplication of effort and too many organizational layers that slow down decision-making.”

These cuts follow Indeed’s previous layoff of 2,200 positions last year, aimed at reducing costs amid slowing revenue.

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The first round of layoffs resulted in the loss of roughly 220 Irish jobs and led to disputes between the company and employee representatives, which escalated to the Labour Court.

The FSU has criticized Indeed's redundancy process, calling for "transparent and fair criteria" and six weeks' pay per year of service for those laid off.

Murphy added: “Indeed does not appear to be listening adequately to either ourselves or the employee representatives in their consultation process.

“Nor do they appear to have listened to the Labour Court following last year's redundancy debacle.”

Last year, the Labour Court stated that depriving at-risk employees of the opportunity to engage with their employer was "not consistent with the respectful conduct of good industrial relations."

Indeed declined to comment on the matter.

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