Chapter 821 - Layoff (1/2)

Translator:MinEditor: Caron_

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 s.h.i.+yu entered Jiang Chen’s office and gently placed a stack of doc.u.ments 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 s.h.i.+yu 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 s.h.i.+yu 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 s.h.i.+yu’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 s.h.i.+p to Europe from China, turning the market’s focus on China, j.a.pan, 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 s.h.i.+yu 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.