Anwar ElMajarkesh (left) and Alan Shalaby (right) from England take a photo at Meta (formerly Facebook) corporate headquarters in Menlo Park, California on November 9, 2022.
Josh Adelson | AFP | Getty Images
a group of meta Workers who joined the company via a corporate training program say they receive lower severance packages compared to other workers who were recently laid off.
Employees are members of the Meta Sourcer Development Program, which aims to help workers from diverse backgrounds obtain jobs in corporate technology recruitment. Sourcer Development is part of the Meta Pathways programme, which helps people with non-traditional professional backgrounds gain apprenticeships at the social networking giant for various roles.
Nearly every member of the Meta Sourcer Development program, more than 60 workers, has been let go from the company as part of its massive layoffs of more than 11,000 workers Earlier in November, several Meta employees told CNBC.
Several members of the Meta Sourcer Development Program told CNBC they joined Meta in April as part of the company’s latest group. The employees said they were not contract workers and were instead classified as short-term employees who received all full-time employee benefits, including insurance and retirement funds but not corporate stock packages. After completing the 12-month program, employees will be converted into full-time employees if they meet the necessary criteria.
in message Sent to Meta employees during layoffs and posted online, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company will pay severance pay for 16 weeks of base salary plus an additional two weeks for each year of service, with no cap. Zuckerberg added that Meta will cover the cost of health care for people and their families for six months.
But members of the Meta Sourcer Development Program said they only receive 8 weeks of base salary and three months of COBRA.
The workers said it was unclear why they received lower severance packages than their colleagues, given that they are full-time employees rather than contract employees.
On November 16, affected workers sent a letter to Zuckerberg and other Meta executives, including Meta chief of staff Laurie Guler and chief operating officer Javier Olivan, informing Meta management of the termination status and asking for help resolving the issue.
“Even our former managers insisted that we were confused and that all the information they had was that we had 16 weeks of salary and 6 months of health insurance,” the group wrote in the letter.
They later added, “The leadership may not have been aware that the most recent SDP dismissal, which began in April 2022, had been repeatedly emphasized by their leadership that any potential layoffs would not affect their existing jobs, but would potentially affect the company’s ability to consider .full time role.”
Affected Meta workers said they have not received any responses from Meta’s human resources and management personnel explaining their situation.
“During a recent Q&A, Laurie stated that Pathways programs will not be affected,” the letter read. “Based on this information, our managers have repeatedly assured us that we do not need to start applying for positions outside the company.”
The group added, “We understand that we are employees at will and that business needs are always evolving and changing, but we can’t help but feel there may have been a mistake.”
The workers told CNBC that Meta has not yet responded to their letter, but has sent some gift packages to members intended to congratulate them on completing the Sourcer Development Program.
“We hope that Mita’s offer of only 8 weeks of basic salary and 3 months of COBRA for the affected SDP class in April 2023 was a clerical error and was not executed with willful disregard or callousness,” the workers said in the letter.
Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Laura Kolodny contributed to this report.
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