IBM's Collapse Continues, Half of EU Countries to Have Mass Layoffs, "IBM Clearly Disinvests From Europe" Says IBM European Works Council
Recent publication:
One hour ago: (Alberta, Canada)
Last month we wrote a lot about IBM layoffs in Europe [1, 2] and some of these were later confirmed by local media. We had also made some similar observations in months prior. As recently as last week we saw evidence of Microsoft and IBM layoffs in the UK, even if the corporate media chooses to ignore those.
We recently took note of the observation that 15% of IBM's staff gets flagged for potential dismissal. That's several tens of thousands of people. "Just wait until RT becomes CEO," a commenter said hours ago, "it will probably be more 20/70/10 if not worse than that."
RT means Rob Thomas, the 20 means 20%, and some people rush to explain why the PR stunt of IBM (something something hiring something something triple something something) distracts from another reality:
Band 6 level?!?! You don't want to get into IBM at that low band level. There is a reason why IBM wants to hire at that band level... it is to pay you peanuts, not to mention it will be really hard for you to get quickly promoted to higher band levels. It is probably going to take you 40 years to get to band 10 and have a shot to become a DE. Then band 10 and DEs never last... they are too expensive and very hard to deploy, especially if you are in services. The minimum level you want to get hired into IBM is band 8. If you don't get that, you better off looking somewhere else.
On IBM cuts, as per another comment: "Well, [CEO] Arvind was pretty clear about the percentages for both bands lower than 10 and band 10. So, the fu---r better deliver. I think they are waiting for the layoffs to be announced so that core and high people rated know that they will get zilch."
IBM is basically lying and deflecting. Everyone believes they cook the books and try to hide the constant layoffs. Talking about speculative GDP and "hiring" is part of that.
Meanwhile, there's another "RA in Western Europe soon, Q1," says a new thread, linking to hard evidence.
There are already comments or a pair of replies:
Looking at the original publication (PDF), we've decided to turn it into GemText, plain text, and HTML:
Statement – Resource Action across the board, mostly impacting Western-European countries
After receiving a series of informal indications over the past weeks, the IBM EWC membership was officially informed at today’s Extraordinary Meeting that a global Resource Action (RA) will indeed be implemented for the fifteenth consecutive year. The current RA will impact around half of the European countries. Even though this year’s reduction target is roughly double the size of 2025, IBM senior management stated that the size and scope of this RA is limited and focused, as the overall reduction of European staff is mid to high single digit.
As before, the IBM EWC cannot agree to the company’s qualification, because IBM has become a significantly smaller organisation compared to five or ten years ago, especially in Europe. In this context, the team observes that also lower reduction numbers have more critical impact than before, most visibly in IBM’s European Support Functions. Carving out a few roles compared to limited local staffing levels can lead to extremely high and impactful reduction percentages that easily go up to 20% or 30% and sometimes even to 50% or 100%.
Compared to 2025, the EWC observes that the current RA focusses on practically all parts of IBM’s business in Europe and that IBM Technology, IBM Consulting and IBM Support Functions all count for roughly one-third of the total reduction target. The overall business rationale relates especially to the implementation of IBM’s enterprise productivity initiatives via automation and the use of AI at job role level, the elimination of tasks, and shifting workloads to strategic locations. Looking into more detail, the membership sees clear distinctions between various parts of IBM’s business in Europe.
Around 70% of the current reduction target in IBM Consulting is aimed at three large countries. For at least four countries, IBM Consulting counts for more than 50% of the country’s total reduction target. The IBM EWC concludes that these targets well exceed the number of colleagues temporarily on the bench in most countries. The company is carving out productive mainline delivery employees, aiming at concentrating the entire delivery effort in the Client Innovation Centers (CICs) to increase profit margins. In this context, the membership is surprised that IBM senior management stated that employees in these CICs might also be eligible of this RA.
IBM Technology has to execute a significant reduction too, especially in Sales, Software and TLS. The IBM EWC can understand that the global implementation of the new Go-to-Market model with less but more focused roles can lead to efficiencies. However, the membership regards Sales and Software as core and fundamental elements to our strategic direction and ambition. If we truly want to become a Software Company, the IBM EWC believes that current staffing levels should at least remain intact. Efficiencies could support the extension of IBM’s reach and visibility in a highly competitive market, instead of further reducing employment. IBM senior management explained that TLS is impacted by a volume decline due to the outstanding quality of current IBM-technology. Products last longer and there is less need for repair, the use of cloud solutions reinforces this trend. Combined with shifting workloads to our TLS Center in Bulgaria, this causes redundancies.
In our Support Functions, IBM continues to shift more workloads from Western-European countries to our International Delivery Centers (IDCs) around Europe. Support staff employees in these countries should on average be prepared for higher single-digit reductions, especially in Finance & Operations. In some larger European countries, Human Resources and Marketing & Communications are impacted significantly as well. Shifting workloads is not new. However, the IBM EWC observes that staffing levels in our European IDCs are also reduced at the same time, sometimes massively. This is most visible in IBM’s Marketing & Communications mission in Bucharest and our Procurement operation in Sofia, both locations face double digit reductions. Also in Bratislava our Q2C and Finance missions are again in scope, with high single digit reduction targets.
The membership does not understand nor support the carve out of jobs at country level and in our IDCs at the same time. By experience we know that careful timing and readiness on both sides before shifting workloads is critical to be successful, especially since local footprints have eroded. Countries hardly have any critical mass left on-site and local support teams have been marginalised. The IBM EWC believes that again pushing an early shift is not without risk to the quality and continuity of daily operations and observes that repeated restructurings led to increased workload, both at country level and in our centers, which negatively impacted morale and engagement of our colleagues.
The membership anticipates that this situation will further deteriorate after the current RA, as a compelling and motivating vision with a clear future perspective continues to be absent for employees working in Support Functions. The IBM EWC cannot accept that this group remains under constant pressure because of their job role, knowing that adequate support is of critical importance to enable the growth of IBM Technology and IBM Consulting. The membership calls again at IBM senior management to be more attentive that colleagues working in Support Functions all over Europe are not overloaded and have sufficient time to hand over and to take over workloads.
The IBM EWC concludes that IBM clearly disinvests from Europe, for example by co-locating work from Europe back to Delivery Centers in the U.S. and partially Asia and North-Africa. The membership has the clear impression that decisions regarding strategic locations are more and more ‘geopolitically motivated’. IBM senior management was unable to clarify what strategic locations are identified for the near future to consolidate some Support Functions and especially whether these locations are inside or outside of Europe. The IBM EWC requests IBM senior management to invest substantial budget in increasing the base salary of colleagues staying at IBM, thereby keeping morale and engagement intact. This is key to boost our growth and support the transformation of our company.
The IBM EWC was informed at the meeting that IBM aims at maximising voluntary packages as much as possible to ensure that employees in scope of this Resource Action can leave the company as ambassadors. The membership requests IBM senior management to inform and instruct country management accordingly. The IBM EWC understands that local implementations are guided by local law and practice, however, at European level one consistent and uniform approach for all European countries in scope of this RA should be discussed, outlined and agreed to ensure that IBM employees all over the continent are treated fairly and equally, according to the same rules and principles. The EWC membership requests IBM senior management to ensure that:
- first and foremost, subcontractor replacement is advertised and applied;
- scoping criteria are transparent and timely agreed and communicated, including fair objection procedures and periods;
- managers pro-actively coach their teams towards re- and up-skilling programs to allow for internal redeployment opportunities supported by IBM’s Business Driven Mobility;
- cross LoB job opportunities are pro-actively facilitated and supported;
- Bridge-to-Retirement programs and paid Leave of Absence/paid sabbaticals are offered;
- so called ‘domino solutions’ are actively promoted and supported;
- only voluntary programs and generous packages are offered, to allow IBMers to leave the company in a mutually agreed and good spirit;
- outplacement support is offered to all employees in scope on acceptance of an offer.
The membership discussed the information and details provided about the size, scoping criteria and timelines for Europe. The current RA impacts only half of all EU-countries, 14 member states are exempted. The IBM EWC believes that the local circumstances in these 14 countries do not differ much from the specific business situation in the countries which are in-scope of the current RA. IBM senior management explained the company’s rationale to exclude them is based on business need, priority and affordability, and confirmed that as a consequence no restructuring will take place there.
Based on the information provided at today’s meeting, the IBM EWC concludes that the company wants this restructuring to be implemented in this first quarter of 2026. The membership requests IBM senior management to ensure that all time required will be given to support the local information and consultation processes within the European countries in scope and to continue the dialogue? on the current Resource Action at European level and to provide regular status updates.
IBM European Works Council
Paris, France – January 22, 2026
Coming soon. This is not part of the wave we wrote about last month. █