Blindsided
Lots of us have lost our jobs at some point in our lives. Heck, it goes without saying in 2020. It’s awful. And when companies merge, even in the most prosperous of times, layoffs are usually expected because of job redundancies. But when it happens, the least we want is to be treated with a little bit of dignity and not feel like our employer was happy with everything that was going down. In Malta right now, employees of the online gaming company NetEnt are experiencing the worst of it after NetEnt was acquired by Evolution.
Evolution bid $2.3 billion to buy NetEnt in June, and last Tuesday, December 1, the deal closed. As soon as the takeover was completed, employees at NetEnt’s live dealer studio in Qormi, Malta were sent home and the office was closed. According to the Times of Malta, “a few hundred” of NetEnt’s 1,000 worldwide employees were going to be laid off. The next step for staff members was to just wait for an e-mail.
“Celebrating in our faces and eating pizza”
It was even worse than it sounded. The Times of Malta later reported that everything seemed normal all the way through last Monday. Nobody had any idea anything was going to happen. In fact, just three months ago, NetEnt committed to expanding its live dealer operations. One employee said that some trainees had just finished their two-week training periods.
Then, on Tuesday morning, security personnel told the dealers to leave their tables to attend a meeting. The employees still didn’t know what was about to happen. The meeting was short and to the point: the employees were being let go. Nobody from NetEnt management or HR was even there.
An employee told the Times that Evolution management was so callous, so uncaring, that representatives from the company were celebrating, eating pizza and drinking champagne, as now-jobless workers were being escorted to their desks to gather their belongings.
“As Evolution began celebrating in our faces and eating pizza, I had to go home and face my children, call the bank and plan what I was to do next,” an employee told the Times.
Union fighting back
On Sunday, the General Workers’ Union initiated an “industrial dispute” against Evolution and NetEnt for failing to go through the proper processes during layoffs. The companies did not provide reasons for the layoffs, how many employees were being let go, how many are normally employed, how those who are laid off are chosen, and details of severance packages, all of which are required by regulatory agencies.
When employees were informed of their severance packages on Monday, they had two options, both of which are basically crap. With one option, employees get a one-time “ex-gratia” payment to voluntarily resign before the standard one-month notice period and must waive their rights to future benefits and payments. They would receive regular pay through December 10 and an additional one-time notice period payment. Basically, they leave early, get their severance, but get no future benefits to which they might normally be entitled.
With the other option, they get their normal pay through the end of the month, but receive no severance at all.
And to make matters worse, employees only have until December 10 to make their decisions.
