Credit-crunch and the ultimate loss of liquidity has hit every firm hard. In the event of loss of demand, the option of increasing liquidity through increased sales (revenue) is invalid. So the only alternative remains is to cut costs of operations, of which wages, salaries and other perks form a large proportion. In the current recession period, however hard a firm may have tried and bespoke of its holy intentions of not laying off people, it eventually did that only to keep itself afloat.
The latest in the line of employers giving pink-slips to their employees is the Microsoft Corp, Tata-Chorus and firms in Saudi Arabia.
The US based software giant, Microsoft Corp announced its plans to downsize its workforce by as much as 5k over a period of 18 months. And no sooner had the announcement been made, than a letter from the Iowa based senator asking it to first fire the overseas professionals hired on H-1B or L visas. The suggestion came in the wake of a lot of Americans having lost their jobs and the possibility that MS Corp may retain overseas professionals and show the exit to the Americans. This would only add to the misery of the nation.
In yet another tell tale, many Saudi-Arabian firms have decided to go for compulsive redundancies with orders for sacking the expatriates first and then the natives (that too if it is really required). The ministry of labor here is specially famed for its policies towards ensuring jobs to more and more people. But its efforts notwithstanding, the employment rate here is still on a lower side. Downsizing is only going to worsen it. But this time for the expatriates.
Last but not the least, Tatas, the Indian major is going ahead with the strategic plans of laying off around 3,500 employees at its steel subsidiary Corus and around 1,500 employees at its auto subsidiary Jaguar Land Rover. The job-cuts are sure to hit the employment market in UK hard but the chances are the Corus lay-off may not come across as a major blow as it is planned and is being undertaken to grant a competitive advantage to the steel major in the UK market.
But the bottom-line of all the downsizing is that the expatriates and overseas professionals are gonna bear the brunt of it all. So the only option remaining with them is to appeal to their home governments for proper employment opportunities.
