Minister for employment 'concerned' for staff following Meta staff cuts announcement

Eva Osborne

Minister for enterprise and employment, Peter Burke, has said he is concerned for Meta staff following an announcement that it is planning to cut about five per cent of staff it considers to be its lowest performers.

Burke said his primary concern following the announcement was for the staff and their families who know must come to terms with it.

“Officials at my department and IDA Ireland are actively engaged with the company in relation to possible impact for its Irish operations," he said.

“As a country we are close to full employment. The economy is well diversified, with hundreds of thousands of people employed by indigenous SMEs, pharmaceuticals, agri-food, med-tech and financial services.”

The minister went on to point out that the company is a longstanding and key employer in Ireland, having first established operations in Ireland in 2008, and generating several thousand jobs directly and through contracted employment.

Bloomberg has reported that an internal memo sent to staff by Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said he had “decided to raise the bar on performance management” in order to “move out low-performers faster”.

According to the memo, Mr Zuckerberg said the company typically “manage out people who aren’t meeting expectations over the course of a year”, but was now planning on “more extensive performance-based cuts” sooner.

Meta is said to have already cut about five per cent of low performers during 2024, but has a target of 10 per cent for its current “performance cycle”, which meant it was looking to “exit approximately another five per cent of our current employees who have been with the company long enough to receive a performance rating”.

In his note, Mr Zuckerberg said Meta would “provide generous severance”.