Forcing employees to quit on their own or in some cases, take forced retirement under terms, unilaterally dictated to benefit the corporation, seems to be standard practice in the corporate world.
PDX-TIE.ORG interviewed a number of people who testified that uniformed armed
guards hired by Intel Corp. management, were in full view, as part of a
psychological move by the company to coerce laid off employees to sign
the separation agreement that was laid on the table in front of them, during the 2016 major employee layoff period.
According to these witnesses, employees were, unexpectedly called, one-by-one, to a room where they were notified that their employment with Intel Corp. is terminated immediately. Most people were immediately stripped off of their company ID badge and their laptops were confiscated during the same session. Following the termination statement subject employees were given an explicit choice to either get out of the door with minimal severance pay or sign the severance agreement that was laid out on the table in front of them. Some witnesses, claimed that they were so shocked by the circumstances and particularly by the full view of armed guards in the vicinity of the "execution" rooms that they felt like hostages and actually experienced a "
Stockholm Syndrome".
Many laid-off employees claimed, after the fact, that they signed the separation agreement without being able to comprehend the document content in sound mind, due to the psychological pressure that they experienced during the reign of Brian Krzanich as CEO of Intel Corp. Some ex-employees claim that the presence of armed guards a few feet away from them, during the firing session, in addition to the psychological shock of suddenly losing their job, drove them into deep personal depression and continued insecurity for a long time, after their last day of employment.
Apparently psychological coercion of employees is a common method used
by corporations to get rid of employees with minimal backlash to
corporate management. A recent court trial in France, involving
Orange S.A. (formerly
French Telecom)
reveals that corporate management came up with an "innovative way" to
reduce their workforce while minimizing public backlash to the company
due to major layoffs. As Fortune Magazine reports:
In
2008 and 2009, dozens of employees of France Telecom took their own
lives or attempted suicide amid a massive restructuring at the company. A
52-year-old technician who killed himself in July 2009 described the
situation as “management by terror” in his suicide note. Starting this
week, six former executives, one current exec, and the company
itself—now known as Orange SA (ORAN)—are in court to face a devastating
question: What role did they play in 35 employee suicides?
In a previous article we discussed the manner in which Intel Corp., under the leadership of Brian Krzanich as CEO, marked the personnel files of about 1300 laid-off employees as THIEVES, in order to prevent them from being rehired by the company for the rest of their lifetime. We know that Intel Corp. has chosen to mark such a large group of employees as THIEVES for nefarious reason that served the narrow interests of the CEO, the Board and a few company executives. We do not contest the right of companies to lay off their employees within the boundaries of the law and for sound business reasons. However, when the official records of the 2015 and 2016 layoff rounds clearly demonstrated disproportionate age-based discrimination, we expect the Federal and State governments to step in vigorously and enforce the relevant workers civil rights laws.
With the additional recent revelations regarding the coercive tactics that Intel Corp. executives used to implement the layoffs, including the threatening deployment of armed guards and marking personnel files with false information in order to block people from being rehired by the company, the American Public must pay close attention to the severe deterioration in corporate behavior.
The question remains, how long can corporations continue to use dubious unethical tactics to serve the narrow interests of a few executives and in addition, continue practicing age-discrimination at large, without any penalties imposed upon such behavior.
Blocking the rehiring of former employees by a company represents a practice that is completely incompatible with the "Equal Employment Opportunity" laws of the U.S. This practice is particularly insidious when such employees are labeled as THIEVES, without proven legal cause.
It is the responsibility of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to take corporate systemic violations of this kind very seriously. They must prosecute law violators to the utmost degree possible, before tragic and violent circumstances, like the ones associated with the France Telecom case become news of the day in the U.S.
--Dr. Flywheel
References:
- Intel Corp. Marked Employees as Thieves to Prevent Their Rehiring
- France Asks a Devastating Question: What Role Did Telecom Executives Play in 35 Employee Suicides?
- France Telecom suicides: Prosecutor calls for bullying trial
- Stockholm syndrome