Intel appears to have offered thousands of Irish employees the opportunity to take extended unpaid leave. According to reports, up to 2,000 of the 5,000 staff of Intel’s Leixlip Campus I was offered the option of three months of unpaid leave. The Irish news follows Intel’s plans for global layoffs announced in October. Intel says it is offering unpaid leave options because it wants to retain talented staff.
The unpaid leave approach will help Intel’s long-term growth by reducing costs while retaining talent, Intel said in a statement. “A voluntary leave program gives us the opportunity to reduce short-term costs and offer our employees attractive leave options,” Intel said in a statement. RTEs“Manufacturing human resources is a key component of our business here in Ireland.”
Ireland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has been told by senior Intel executives that he believes Intel remains committed to Ireland and believes current cost reductions are “short-term measures” for long-term investments. said that road. Indeed, with a more optimistic long-term future in mind, Intel spent $5 billion in March commissioning a new Intel 4 (aka Intel 7nm) fab at Leixlip’s site, with another $12 billion. has announced that it plans to spend We are preparing the fab by the end of 2023. Recently, significant investments in mainland Europe and the United States have also been confirmed.
A slowdown in the PC and semiconductor industry is a well-established trend in the second half of 2022. Many companies, including Intel, have already released financial reports highlighting the need to cut costs. But the cyclical nature of the semiconductor industry is well known, and cutting too deep may leave companies unprepared for the next boom. As long as companies have the resources, it makes sense to cut back as much as possible without impacting their ability to overdo it and bounce back.
I don’t know the exact details of the 3 months unpaid leave option. So, for example, the timing of the holiday period is unknown. Nor can Intel’s Irish operations be immune to layoffs, and the adoption of a voluntary unpaid leave option could have implications for subsequent employee-focused announcements. , Intel Ireland is targeting savings to contribute to the company’s global plan to reduce costs by $10 billion annually worldwide by 2025. while continuing to invest heavily in industrial assets.
