IBM’s work force in China isn’t immune from layoffs after all.
Chinese media reported Thursday that Big Blue is “expected to axe at least 500 staff on the Chinese mainland.”
Job cuts now top 3,000 in North America, based on internal “resource action” documents obtained by Alliance at IBM, the union that seeks to represent IBM workers. IBM (NYSE: IBM) has said it would spend $1 billion in cutting jobs and making other restructuring changes.
Other cuts are being made in Australia, Western Europe and South America, according to media reports and information supplied to Alliance.
So far, no reports have surfaced about layoffs in India where IBM reportedly employs the largest number of its more than 430,000 employees.
In an email to China Daily, IBM said the layoffs were due to a changing business environment.
“The world’s biggest computer service provider said in an e-mailed reply to China Daily on Wednesday, from its China office, that change is constant’ in the technology industry and that ‘transformation is an essential feature of our business model,’ China Daily reported.
“Consequently, some level of workforce remix is a constant requirement for our business,” the IBM statement added, according to the newspaper.
According to the report, which sited another local Chinese news website, laid-off workers will receive severance of some $2.270 for each year of service.
China Daily noted that IBM “did not refute the report.”
The entire China Daily report can be read online.
IBM employs some 10,000 people across North Carolina.
