Laid-off Oracle workers tried to negotiate severance better. The Oracle said no.

As widely reported, Oracle fired an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 people via email on March 31.

One employee who was cut off that day told TechCrunch about the experience: “I had a weird feeling in my stomach. I went to log into the VPN, and the VPN was saying, ‘This user doesn’t exist anymore.’ Then I called my friend, and I said, ‘Hey, can you see me in Slack?’ And she said, ‘No, your account has been disabled.’”

The person soon received an email stating that their role was terminated immediately. The class offer arrived a few days later. But Oracle’s terms quickly became a point of contention, and some laid-off employees may oppose them.

Oracle offered fairly standard terms for US companies to laid-off employees. In exchange for signing a statement waiving their right to sue, employees received four weeks of pay for the first year, plus one additional week for each year of service, up to a maximum of 26 weeks. The company was also paying COBRA insurance for one month.

The catch: Although stock compensation often makes up a significant portion of technology workers’ pay, especially at Oracle, the company has not accelerated the RSUs that will vest soon. Any shares not vested by the termination date will be forfeited.

This even applies to stock granted as retention incentives or in lieu of salary increases associated with promotions. One long-time employee lost $1 million in stock that was only four months away from vesting; Time magazine reported that RSUs accounted for about 70% of his compensation.

Some employees also discovered that if the company classified them as remote workers, and they didn’t work in a state with stronger labor provisions like California or New York, the company said they didn’t qualify for WARN Act protections.

The WARN Act is a law that requires companies that conduct mass layoffs to give employees two months’ notice before they’re going to let them go. It is triggered when 50 or more people in one place are affected. By classifying employees as remote workers, minimum location requirements can be bypassed.

Some people were not aware they were classified as remote workers, because they were near an office and working a hybrid schedule.

Even if they are covered by the WARN Act, that doesn’t necessarily extend the severance period, the former Oracle employee said. This is because Oracle has included the two-month WARN notice payment in its current four-week calculations, in addition to one week annually.

For a short while, a group of employees tried to bargain collectively with Oracle, according to a letter seen by TechCrunch. At least 90 people have signed a public petition urging the database and cloud computing giant to match the terms of other big tech companies conducting mass layoffs in the name of artificial intelligence.

For example, Meta’s compensation package, according to an email published by Business Insider, started with 16 weeks of base salary, plus two weeks for each year of employment and 18 months of COBRA coverage.

Microsoft, which extended voluntary retirement offers to long-serving employees, offered accelerated stock vesting, a minimum of eight weeks’ pay, and an additional one to two weeks for every six months of service, depending on rank, the Seattle Times reported.

Cloudflare, which just cut 20% of its employees, offered a lump sum severance pay equal to base pay through the end of 2026, as well as health care coverage through the end of the year, and accelerated stock vesting through August 15. So if an employee is about to get another chip, they will get it.

Oracle declined to negotiate, according to an email seen by TechCrunch. The employee said it was a “take it or leave it” scenario.

When asked about the terms of termination, the classification of employees as remote workers, and the failed attempt by employees to negotiate further, Oracle declined to comment.

This reaction from the company is not surprising, not even to those who were hoping to negotiate. But he contends that for all the theoretical high wages (often via stock) and perks that tech workers enjoy when it’s an employee market, they have very few protections in place when it’s not.