6 ms·

Cork-based Apple contractors 'who heard chat on Siri' lose jobs

35 points by frabbit 7y ago

rad_gruchalski 7y ago
“We've all been laid off after the scandal, with no protection against this. More than 300 at once just in Cork, with no redundancy, just one week's notice.” Welcome to the world of a contractor.
- stevewodil 7y ago
  Surprised they got any notice at all, it's very uncommon for a company to give formal notice before terminating employees for fear of malicious behvaior...unless there's a law for this
  - chrisdhoover 7y ago
    The answer to that are severance packages
    - stevewodil 7y ago
      Not sure about that. If the severance was good enough people would purposely try to get fired and then get a new job and continue that cycle as desired
  - nmstoker 7y ago
    This is in Europe so there's bound to be a law. In the UK it's 1 week minimum notice period for redundancy and I wouldn't be surprised if it were the same in Ireland.
    - floatingatoll 7y ago
      Does their two weeks of paid leave count towards that week?
      - ahje 7y ago
        In the Nordic countries employees can't be forced to take their paid leave during their notice period. It's all based on EU regulations, so I would assume there are similar rules on Ireland.
5822130027 7y ago
The Irish government should increase land rent under apple HQ by 5% and give them 1 week notice.
- ericmay 7y ago
  I am not a fan of reactionary comments like this, given that Apple laid off 300 people (with pay) out of 6,000 people they employ, and those people were transcribing Siri conversations at that.
  - 5822130027 7y ago
    > I am not a fan of reactionary comments like this How is it reactionary ? Apple hasn't been paying EU taxes, its just readjusting past wrongs. > given that Apple laid off 300 people (with pay) out of 6,000 people they employ, Apple is not employing people out of charity, I am not sure why we should celebrate a multinational providing jobs to people, it's like celebrating when the postman successfully delivers your mail. > those people were transcribing Siri conversations at that. So they deserve no dignity ? Apple is the richest company in the world, not your struggling SMB, they can afford to treat their workers better.
  - Apocryphon 7y ago
    Given that corporations get sweetheart deals and perks all of the time as "job creators", they either should have reallocated those people to different jobs, or receive a proportional reduction in perks. It's only fair to respect the original agreement.
- nodesocket 7y ago
  There is a lot of misinformation and ignorance on how much Apple pays in taxes, especially in Ireland. I see snarky comments on HN all the time about Apple using tax havens and not paying their fair share of US taxes. The most detailed and accurate article about Apple's tax liabilities that I have seen was published in Fortune[1]. It explains how multinationals actually are liable for US based corporate tax for ALL income all over the world, but there are two exemptions. One based around deferring tax payments and the other is for earnings from operations (not capital gains, etc) used to re-invest and grow the business. [1] https://fortune.com/2017/10/31/trump-tax-reform-apple-multinational-companies/ https://fortune.com/2017/10/31/trump-tax-reform-apple-multin...
bumbledraven 7y ago
HN title: > Apple lays off 5% of Irish employees with 1 week's notice Where does 5% figure come from? It's not in the article. And they're contractors, not employees. The actual title of the article is: > 300 Cork-based Apple contractors 'who heard chat on Siri' lose jobs
- dang 7y ago
  Yes, we've reverted to the article title now. Submitters: please follow the site guidelines. They include: "Please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
kerng 7y ago
Title is wrong, can HN or OP change it please? Its nice if the title is the real one because most often it actually reflects the content better, otherwise its clickbait and hoping for random upvotes. This is not about employees, its contractors for instance.
- floatingatoll 7y ago
  The mods respond rapidly to emails to the address in the footer for these. I’ll send one now.
rescue_dont_buy 7y ago
Sounds like the life of a contractor. Anyone else work in consulting here? Any backup plans if the recession comes sooner than later?
- ahje 7y ago
  Saving some extra money to make sure I can pay the interest on my mortgage even if someone botches my welfare pay-outs for a few months. Also looking for alternate business ideas and trying to find smaller contracts spread over more clients in order to reduce the impact of losing a large client.
KiDD 7y ago
Isn't it one of those contractors that spoke out about it? Now they are angry they lost their jobs... Makes Sense

35 points by frabbit 7y ago

“We've all been laid off after the scandal, with no protection against this. More than 300 at once just in Cork, with no redundancy, just one week's notice.” Welcome to the world of a contractor.

stevewodil 7y ago
Surprised they got any notice at all, it's very uncommon for a company to give formal notice before terminating employees for fear of malicious behvaior...unless there's a law for this
- chrisdhoover 7y ago
  The answer to that are severance packages
  - stevewodil 7y ago
    Not sure about that. If the severance was good enough people would purposely try to get fired and then get a new job and continue that cycle as desired
- nmstoker 7y ago
  This is in Europe so there's bound to be a law. In the UK it's 1 week minimum notice period for redundancy and I wouldn't be surprised if it were the same in Ireland.
  - floatingatoll 7y ago
    Does their two weeks of paid leave count towards that week?
    - ahje 7y ago
      In the Nordic countries employees can't be forced to take their paid leave during their notice period. It's all based on EU regulations, so I would assume there are similar rules on Ireland.

5822130027 7y ago

The Irish government should increase land rent under apple HQ by 5% and give them 1 week notice.

ericmay 7y ago
I am not a fan of reactionary comments like this, given that Apple laid off 300 people (with pay) out of 6,000 people they employ, and those people were transcribing Siri conversations at that.
- 5822130027 7y ago
  > I am not a fan of reactionary comments like this How is it reactionary ? Apple hasn't been paying EU taxes, its just readjusting past wrongs. > given that Apple laid off 300 people (with pay) out of 6,000 people they employ, Apple is not employing people out of charity, I am not sure why we should celebrate a multinational providing jobs to people, it's like celebrating when the postman successfully delivers your mail. > those people were transcribing Siri conversations at that. So they deserve no dignity ? Apple is the richest company in the world, not your struggling SMB, they can afford to treat their workers better.
- Apocryphon 7y ago
  Given that corporations get sweetheart deals and perks all of the time as "job creators", they either should have reallocated those people to different jobs, or receive a proportional reduction in perks. It's only fair to respect the original agreement.
nodesocket 7y ago
There is a lot of misinformation and ignorance on how much Apple pays in taxes, especially in Ireland. I see snarky comments on HN all the time about Apple using tax havens and not paying their fair share of US taxes. The most detailed and accurate article about Apple's tax liabilities that I have seen was published in Fortune[1]. It explains how multinationals actually are liable for US based corporate tax for ALL income all over the world, but there are two exemptions. One based around deferring tax payments and the other is for earnings from operations (not capital gains, etc) used to re-invest and grow the business. [1] https://fortune.com/2017/10/31/trump-tax-reform-apple-multinational-companies/ https://fortune.com/2017/10/31/trump-tax-reform-apple-multin...

bumbledraven 7y ago

HN title: > Apple lays off 5% of Irish employees with 1 week's notice Where does 5% figure come from? It's not in the article. And they're contractors, not employees. The actual title of the article is: > 300 Cork-based Apple contractors 'who heard chat on Siri' lose jobs

dang 7y ago
Yes, we've reverted to the article title now. Submitters: please follow the site guidelines. They include: "Please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

kerng 7y ago

Title is wrong, can HN or OP change it please? Its nice if the title is the real one because most often it actually reflects the content better, otherwise its clickbait and hoping for random upvotes. This is not about employees, its contractors for instance.

floatingatoll 7y ago
The mods respond rapidly to emails to the address in the footer for these. I’ll send one now.

rescue_dont_buy 7y ago

Sounds like the life of a contractor. Anyone else work in consulting here? Any backup plans if the recession comes sooner than later?

ahje 7y ago
Saving some extra money to make sure I can pay the interest on my mortgage even if someone botches my welfare pay-outs for a few months. Also looking for alternate business ideas and trying to find smaller contracts spread over more clients in order to reduce the impact of losing a large client.

KiDD 7y ago

Isn't it one of those contractors that spoke out about it? Now they are angry they lost their jobs... Makes Sense