Chapter 821 - Layoff
At Future Group Building, Jiang Chen came to work as usual.
It had been two weeks since the funerals of the four soldiers. At least calmness returned to Coro Island; tourists hadn’t felt the tense atmosphere of the past. The only difference was that security near the airport and the port had been strengthened by several magnitudes. The number of patrol drones stationed near Future Building also increased to twice the norm. Future Heavy Industries continued to recruit while Ange Park Industrial Park’s military factory produced around the clock.
Xia Shiyu entered Jiang Chen’s office and gently placed a stack of documents at the corner of the table.
“Last month’s financial report came out. Are you going to take a look?”
“Just tell me if it’s positive or negative.”
“The company’s total revenue for the previous month was 4.7 billion US Dollar, a 13.7% decrease compared to last year at the same time. If the situation doesn’t improve next month, it may fall about 4-5 points again.” Here, Xia Shiyu paused. Then she said, “After all, we’ve lost all of Europe.”
Jiang Chen picked up the financial report and flipped through it.
“What suggestions do you have?”
“Layoffs in the European subsidiary,” Xia Shiyu said without hesitation.
“This may cause a loss of talent.” Jiang Chen didn’t share the same views as her.
“Executives and technical staff can retain normal salaries while all other employees will be put on leave without pay, which will cut us a lot of expenses. I don’t deny that Future Group can indeed afford these employees, but if we lose the European market for an extended period of time, we must do more long-term planning. We shouldn’t rule out the temporary closure of the European office, leaving only one office to maintain patents and trademarks, and relocating the entire executive team to Penglai City or the headquarters on Coro Island.”
There was nothing wrong with Xia Shiyu’s judgment.
She based her judgment on being the CEO of Future Group. If the European Commission was eager to wage a war against Future Group, Future Group would be unable to make any means in the European market while also without any means of fighting back.
There was an international precedent.
In the second half of 2013, the European Commission conducted an antidumping and countervailing investigation into three Chinese photovoltaic companies. Even if the EU’s decision at the time lacked sufficient legal basis and also violated the spirit of free trade advocated by Western countries, the sanctions decision was eventually implemented.
Because of the three decisions, the three photovoltaic companies were forced to withdraw from the MIP agreement and were imposed tariffs of 47%. After the results of the ruling came out, the two photovoltaic companies announced they would no longer ship to Europe from China, turning the market’s focus on China, Japan, and South Korea.
If resistance came from the policy side, then the companies would have no way around it.
Since they would be forced to leave eventually, it would be better to go out with a bang and layoff hundreds of thousands of people while taking away the executives and technical talents.
Seeing Jiang Chen didn’t make a decision, Xia Shiyu sighed then said, “…at this stage, the nutrient supply of Future Biology is being investigated by the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) and the results of the investigation will be released a week later. From the current situation, despite Tao Ming holding a press conference, declaring nutrient supply has no problems at all, and even drinking two bottles on the spot, the final investigation results may not be good for us.”
If this had been before, Jiang Chen might’ve slammed the table, greeted the ancestors of the European Commissions, then decided on the layoffs.
But now, he was expectedly calm.
The result would be no different.
“For senior executives and technical experts, grant Xin visas, as well as relocation expenses. For those willing to transfer locations, their salary will be increased by 20%. For those unwilling, put them on two years of paid leave.”
The tax rate of Xin was different from that of high-tax, high-welfare Europe. Even if the salaries remained unchanged, European employees who migrated to Xin would receive much higher salaries compared to working in Europe.
With a deep breath, Jiang Chen paused for a moment with his fingers crossed on the table.
“Other than Future Bank, all 315,000 employees of the group’s subsidiaries in EU will be laid off!”
With 315,000 employees, Future Group was paying nearly one billion US dollar in salaries each month. Layoffs were commonplace in the capitalist world, and Future Group wouldn’t be blamed morally.
However, it would make it difficult for the EU countries. After all, they would suddenly have more than 300,000 unemployed people. Even if they were distributed among the countries, it still wouldn’t be pleasant. This was the case in high-welfare countries. All unemployed people had to be supported by the government.
“As for the United Kingdom … wait and see first,” Jiang Chen said.
The United Kingdom was no longer in the European Union, and it hadn’t responded to the attack of Freemasonry against Future Group. However, if the United Kingdom also made a decision, Jiang Chen didn’t care as he had given up the European market.
At least until the collapse of Freemasonry, he had no intention of returning.
“Yes.”
Xia Yu nodded and left.
…
The European Commission was eagerly plotting against Future Group. People who understood the situation clearly knew that the European Union was keen to get rid of Jiang Chen’s “home” in Europe. However, just three days before the results of EFSA’s investigation on the safety of nutrient supply, Future Group suddenly announced its assets had fully withdrawn from Europe and 315,000 employees would be laid off. Only two offices in France and Germany would be retained to deal with the law and legacy issues…
After receiving this news, the European Commission that was meeting to discuss how to deal with Future Group suddenly quieted down.
The members around the table stared at each other. They wanted to say something, but nothing came out.
Sitting in the first spot around the conference table, the European Commission’s chairman, Juncker, was silent. He tapped his pen against the notebook and broke the silence at the conference table.
“Does the discussion still need to continue?”
“Layoffs? 320,000? Are they crazy?” The Frankberg Commissioner was astounded by the news.
After all, one-third of the Future Group’s employees were concentrated in Frankberg. If the news was accurate, then just one second ago, Frankberg gained another hundred thousand unemployed citizens.
“It seems that it’s true.” The French Commissioner looked at the watch, then put on their pen cover and closed their notebook. “It seems that the meeting can end early. We won. Future Group ran away from Europe… Thankfully, this errand is finally over.”
He faced a considerable amount of pressure when he voted in favor of the series of investigations into Future Group.
The people weren’t as foolproof as they thought. The series of measures of the European Commission clearly displayed strong local protectionism. Perhaps entrepreneurs were happy to see one less competitor, but in the eyes of those who were interested in Future Group, this behavior wasn’t as popular as when they investigated the Chinese photovoltaic companies.
After all, the average person wouldn’t come into contact with photovoltaic equipment every day, but they would use Future phones every day, along with the only neuron access device in the world, the Phantom Helmet.
Even if it was the intention of the Freemasonry, it was the members of these voting committees and the government behind each in-favor vote that had to bear the controversial opinion.
“Then the meeting is adjourned.”
The commissioners all left, and although they won, for some odd reason, nobody looked pleasant.
When leaving the venue, the Frankberg Commissioner Framont made two calls – one to the president and one to an old friend in Freemasonry. There were many things that would keep him busy once he returned to Germany…
Although they won, Framont had the illusion of being defeated.
It must be an illusion.