Motorola ends layoff negotiation in China

The Beijing Office of Motorola Mobility LLC ended the layoff negotiations Tuesday noon and would unilaterally terminate the labor contract of the employees refusing to sign termination papers, stcn.com reported Tuesday.

Dozens of Motorola employees in Beijing refused to sign the termination agreement by Tuesday, which provides a compensation equal to a month's salary multiplied by the number of years an employee has worked in the company.

Employees who signed the agreement were offered additional compensation in the form of two months' salary and other payments in lieu of unused annual leave and housing subsidy, said the report.

Motorola Mobility LLC declined to comment Tuesday when contacted by the Global Times.

However, an engineer at Motorola Beijing who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told the Global Times Tuesday, "The company stopped negotiating with the concerned employees at noon and would unilaterally terminate the contracts of those who did not sign the agreement."

"This global layoff by Motorola Mobility involved 1,000 Chinese employees, about 700 of whom are based in Beijing where each division of the company would retrench about 20 to 30 percent of the staff," said the engineer.

"Some people may be unwilling to accept the conditions, but the agreement has already been finalized," he told the Global Times.

On August 13, Motorola Mobility LLC announced on its website that 4,000 staff would be laid off around the world, two thirds of which outside the US.

Motorola promised to help dismissed employees by providing fair compensation and re-employment service, according to the announcement.

However, about 100 Motorola Beijing employees protested against the layoffs, saying the decision was taken unilaterally and without consultations with the staff, ifeng.com reported on August 14.

The protestors claimed that the compensation for unused annual leave and housing funds were not mentioned in the layoff notice issued two days after the announcement, the report said.

Experts noted that the retrenchment at Motorola Mobility LLC was expected after Google Inc acquired the company in August 2011, as Motorola Mobility was losing money in a market dominated by smartphone producers, like Apple Inc.

Wu Jun, chief engineer at Google Inc, reviewed Google's acquisition history on his Sina Weibo over the weekend and listed the top 10 most valuable acquisitions Google has made so far.

The acquisition of Motorola Mobility by Google for $12.5 billion in 2011 ranked No.1, bringing Google 17,000 patents, Wu said.

Motorola Mobility recorded a loss of $233 million in the second quarter this year, $192 million of which came from the mobile business, according to the quarterly financial report of Google.