Earlier this week, Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) confirmed that layoffs had taken place at the Foster City headquarters. The original report from Kotaku claimed that 80 to 100 people lost their jobs. GameDaily BIZ has learned, however, that this figure is not correct.
Dave Karraker, SCEA's Sr. Director, Corporate Communications, informed us that the 80 to 100 number was "way high." In fact, the number was likely around 50 or fewer people. Karraker still declined to give us an exact figure but he advised us that the company did not have to provide a WARN notification.
The WARN Act in the U.S. requires employers to provide written notice at least 60 calendar days in advance of mass layoffs. The exact wording of the act is as follows: "A WARN notice is required when a business with 100 or more full-time workers (not counting workers who have less than 6 months on the job and workers who work fewer than 20 hours per week) is laying off at least 50 people at a single site of employment." Therefore, if SCEA did not trigger the WARN Act, the layoffs had to have been lower than 50 individuals.
GameDaily BIZ originally heard from a former SCEA employee who said that these layoffs "have quietly been going on since the beginning of the year," and were not a recent development. Karraker admitted that some people lost their jobs prior to the recent layoffs, but he said it was nothing out of the ordinary.
Read the entire aricle here...James Brightman
June 8, 2007
Source:
GameDaily BIZ