SAP’s European Workers Council has slammed the tech giant’s planned restructure in an email leaked to Handelsblatt, a German Newspaper.
The email also shared that 4,100 of the 8,000 impacted jobs will come from its European remit, with 2,600 based in Germany.
SAP will likely notify most of the affected employees within the coming weeks.
In January, SAP announced the plan to eliminate 8,000 roles but reskill many of the affected workers for the age of AI and offer them new roles.
At the time, Christian Klein, CEO of SAP, told investors during an earnings call: "It is important to be clear this workforce transformation will include a restructuring component. We intend to allocate roughly €2 billion for this."
Yet, the Workers Council has now hit back, claiming that the move is more about workforce reductions than "transformation".
In addition, the internal email - sent on Friday - argues that SAP’s management had not adequately justified the business logic behind the move or provided precise information about the inefficiencies it aims to overcome.
As cited by Handelsblatt, the email - originally written in German - states:
[SAP appears to have made decisions] solely or primarily based on costs, and not on the actual value that existing employees, teams, and locations represent for our customers.
At first, SAP received praise from many quarters for its transformation program, challenging the "hire and fire" culture within many high-profile tech firms.
Its stock also jumped seven percent on the January announcement, taking it to an all-time high.
Moreover, Europe’s largest SaaS manufacturer offered assurances that it didn’t expect to end 2024 with a smaller headcount than the 107,602 employees it started the year with.
