Final EU Clearance on Sun Merger

The NY Post released the information here, not confirmed nor commented yet.

Sharing the code of ethics goals

The FR Works council is beeing consulted on the code of Ethics and Business Conduct to be implemented in France. This code should be fully enforceable towards employees.
The exposed principles are quite legitimate as they define what a responsible employee in a responsible company should do.



Responsible company ?
We face very opaque compliance protocols, as employee reps cannot control the ethics alerts nor allow any investigation rights on non compliances issues.
The company refuses to answer any questions regarding offshore operations, non compliance alerts.
Very strict SEC requierements are to be enforced to guarantee governance rules in terms of corruption, local law compliance, fair treatement and reporting.
We feel the lack of a World Wide Employee Works council independant control is a very important flaw, and we feel dangerous operations could still be conducted, "under the radar screen" in confined areas of huge corporations like Oracle.

Let's not forget Delaware, Cayman Islands, Mauritus, Luxembourg operations actually beeing run by Oracle - Who is in charge of controlling what's been done there ?
Are shareholders and employees to be proud of those covert operations ?

CFDT Oracle Labor union requests a worldwide employee governance model that enforces long term operations, fully compliant in any area of the company.

You want discuss, you have doubts about ethics management, you wish to submit a whisleblowing alert thought us, we'll help.


Read more : Secrecy Juridictions, Tax Justice Network, Sarbanes Oxley Structural Model by R. Moberly,

Oracle & My SQL

From le MagIT

Sun Acquisition - EU in the way

EU published a statement of objections regarding the Sun purchase.
Press Informations DenverPost,
Sun Microsystems blocked in between, is probably suffering many damages from those delays.
Let's not forget the Sun Employees either!

Sun Acquisition Clearance - More clouds in the way

A recent information relayed by the Financial Times, tends to indicate EU is hardening its position towards Oracle, regarding the anti trust probe concerning MySQL.
85 % of the database marketshare is controled by Oracle/IBM/Microsoft, and EU is concerned by the level of concentration in this arena, Oracle already leading the way.


This announcement is following exchanges of bullets between EU and Oracle officials regarding who's to blame, in the delays. "commission officials confirmed that, in spite of ”repeated requests”, Oracle had neither provided them with evidence that the deal would not cause competition problems, nor discussed possible remedies."

"Sun is losing $100m a month as Oracle waited for approval of the deal", justifying yet another wave of 3000 job cuts...

On one side we have a company fighting for survival, and on the other, an angel coming at its rescue for the hard price in database arena, but for yet more competition in hardware space...

Oracle Tax Haven Operations

One of our reader brought this very interesting internal document to our attention.
Please consider the paragraph starting with "Risks Identified".

Isn't it time for a Corporation to pay its tax to local countries like any normal company does ?
Isn't it time for more social leadership and less social marketing ?
Isn't it time for more employee dialogue ?

Read More : TaxJustice Blog, CFDT Labor Union Oracle Tax Video, Congress 1265 Bill, Delaware,

Comments welcome !

Dear Mrs Catz

A recent fortune article made a very good presentation of Safra Catz we recommand every employee to consider.

"If it's not in the numbers, I don't care how strategic it is, it doesn't play out."

The key was centralizing control. As an example, Catz cited the revamping of Oracle's customer-support service, a mundane yet critical cost center for all businesses. Before, Oracle offered support in soothing local accents and at tiered rates. After Catz was done crunching the numbers, all customers received 24/7 service at a single, lower price and from whichever product specialist picked up the line. "No negotiation," she said.

With two banking-oriented co-presidents, Oracle began methodically picking off one billion-dollar-plus software company after another -- Siebel and BEA were the biggest to follow PeopleSoft -- as well as scores of smaller tuck-in acquisitions that made Oracle a player in business applications.


Full Fortune Article.

Pittsburgh G-20 Process Must Tackle Banking Secrecy, Illicit Financial Flows

Employee reps are constantly beeing refused access to informations regarding Oracle offshore operations.
We do support the "Global Financial Integrity" call to urge leaders to pursue measures to increase transparency in global finance and curtail illicit financial flows.
Why would there be such a secrecy, with autonomous computer networks not linked to the main Oracle Intranet, and impressive firewalls ?
Why would an honest company still need so many holdings in Haven Islands ?

We know for sure Oracle CAPAC is driving key operations to prevent country tax authorities to challenge zero or near zero withholing rates applied.
An other example, France Tax authorities are conducting a 6+ years revenue recognition review, challenging the operating cost transfer ratios used by the company.

It's time for an higher morale in Corporations !

Any information, idea on your side, other examples regarding those operations please contact us. We will guaranty your anonymity :

Sun/Oracle Merger - EU Antitrust Probe

On Sept. 3, European Union regulators launched an antitrust probe into Oracle's (ORCL) tentative deal of Sun Microsystems (JAVA), saying they wanted to make sure Oracle was committed to developing Sun's rival open-source database software, MySQL.

"While getting MySQL as part of the Sun deal would eliminate a feisty competitor for Oracle, it's unlikely that the software giant would risk scuttling the deal over this issue. Amid the uncertainty over regulatory approval, Sun lost market share in the computer server business to IBM and Dell (DELL) in the second quarter, according to market researcher Gartner. If push comes to shove, Oracle will likely set MySQL free."

Image Courtesy of LeMagIT - http://www.lemagit.fr
Quotes from Business Week Article
Read More : Business Week, Guardian,

Let's build a common future

I had a dream...
Where citizens, states, companies would share the same goals.
Where healthy corporations would contribute through their taxes in the global eco-system.
Where global employees would have the opportunity to express their point of view.
Where education would be a richness, not a cost.
Oracle is deploying important Reduction In Force plans, strong cost reductions, and training absolutely limited.
Thousands of employees are beeing layed of for "increased" global efficiency.

Can we build a future for our nations, after reinjecting billions of dollars in finance corporations, without having our company sharing the burden ?
Education investments should be a must for a better future...

Will some politicians share our dreams ?
Read More : Global Financial Integrity, Paul Jorion's blog, Recession and Education, Stop Tax Haven Abuse Congress Bill 1265 ,

Be Oracle - Be Amazed - Be Brave - Be Margin Contributor - Be Fired -

The Vision 2010 Employee initiative is now a thing of the past. Very few pages still have the reference to the Key employee empowerment references.

In other times, we should be proud of beeing among the most profitable companies in the world.
However, those incredible profits are more and more gained against employees and employment.

Be ever more admired in volunteering for CSL projects :
Be Amazed, Be brave in accepting to be fired to contribute for more company profitability.

Have a look here : Oracle Profitability Ranking.

CFDT Labor Union - Get United - Ask for an employee representation council.

US Department of Justice Clearance for Sun Acquisition

The information came Thursday, Oracle's $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems has been approved and is now subject to only the European Union Clearance.

Oracle and Sun beeing in the process of deploying their respectives Reduction In Force, we recommand you consider the following fictional video, the trek fans will recognize, about the Borg Orakle species assimilation process.

Corporations - Such a wonderful world

When a few images mean so much more than thousand words.

Employment Destruction

What's left for Mankind in our world, at times where micro-economic interests of few ones, takes precedence over the macro-economic best duties, and larger communities interests.

Such an heavy lorry driver like Oracle, hitting the brakes and throwing employees offboard is very sad example for the many other courageous companies, fighting for their survival, but still keeping their staff members onboard. Needless to add, the snowball effect leaving many more on the bench, outside the company, to be cared by governemental wellfare.

Having so many subsidiaries in Haven Islands : Cayman, Luxembourg, Mauritus, how much is left of the company real benefits to feed in Tax departments and fund this wellfare ?

Isn't it time now for a renewal in citizenship, true Politics ?
Politics that would act in accordance to people needs ?
Politics that would enforce the world people voices, and rule the way corporations operates ?
Politics that would bring back trust in our world, in our economy, in our lives, for our children.

It is the reponsability of each one of us to use his voice and remind what Politics shall mean !

IT Hard times

Sun Microsystems, Hewlett Packard are launching yet another season of their famous layoff plans series.

Oracle on its side has not announced anything... yet.

Hopefully, beating analysts expectations, Generating 23 Billion $ of revenue and $5.5 billion in net income is enough to see things coming ?

Read more : HP Season 5, HP Season 4, Sun Season 8, Sun Season 9, IBM Season X,

Fire Drill Layoff Legend

You may have received an interesting email, circulating within Oracle about the Fire Drill Layoff report. This email has circulated in many formats, and stays alive as it sounds so much like the real world.

Read More : Snopes.com

PS. In the meantime, RIF rumors claims and patriot calls are still running on the layoff blog.

Oracle & Offshore - No comment

Local Management refused to give any explaination regarding Cayman operations of Oracle. Theses operations are controlled outside employee representatives legal perimeters.

What else needs to be said ?

Read More : Bloomberg

Welcome to Sun Employees

We wish to express our warm welcome to our probably future new collegues.
Let's hope you'll join us in the best conditions and that sufficient investments will be made to enable shared growth with no unvoluntary layoffs.

"Minor" Resource Adjustment in support

The Layoff Radar is going crazy with an bloody Apr 15th within the support organisation reported by many sources on the layoff blog
We have no indication yet of any deployment within Europe, as the EU consultation directive will enforce a strict consultation process, and hopefully better employee considerations.

Let's remind that Support is one of the most profitable activities of Oracle and that many customers, not ready for "extra advanced" customer care services, urge Oracle for a more human-friendly support organisation, taking ownership of problems instead of asking hours investments from the customer in the building support cases.

Please note we do not support the very few hate messages of pushing employees against each others based on their home country. We should all rely on higher standards, and take every opportunity, within the company and outside for building a more responsible world, sharing shared growth opportunities, and reminding as Henry Ford envisioned, that employees are at the end customers.

Few samples of posts from layoff blog :
#787 - Layoff happening at the Oracle Support Center today. Too bad. These are people with many years of experience. I guess they’ll be twicely replaced in India or China, minus the experience of course.

#794 - i got laid off too! Services East Coast! pretty shabby way - 8:01 - got the call, was read some script; 10:05 fedex drops me a pkg from oracle and 12:04 no more access to internal vpn sh*thole.

#803 - Was with Oracle over 10 years and the layoffs (while focused un some senior and upper
management) is hitting all layers — especially in Support.

US supreme court to rule overtime litigation

A number of lawsuits especially in Support, Education and consulting have been filed and won in front of US judges.
This is why recently many salaried employees, who didn’t have to record their time, where moved to hourly waged employees.
Time sheets have to be entered for all hours to generate the pay check.

California Court Decision is particulary interesting as it considers potential economic and equity distortions between californian residents and non residents.
This reminds EU countries considerations regarding their respective strengths or weakness in competitiveness regarding the labor "costs".

To be continued, in better employee investments recognition considering real labor & travel hours...

Oracle EMEA / Italy - Let's refuse unvoluntary layoffs

Please let's all bring our full support to our collegues from Oracle Italy and the other EMEA countries impacted.
We cannot accept to have the Reduction In Force Plan deployment without voluntary-only leave measures.
This has been done in France where HR put a lot of energy with employee representatives to prevent unvoluntary layoffs.



FYI - Oracle is starting stock dividend distribution for the first time in its history simultaneously with tens of employee dismissals.

Social Reponsability - Cannot mix dividends and layoffs

Oracle as announced dividends will be payed to shareholders for the first time in the company history.
We call the company to freeze any layoff projects that might be planned or under deployment, as the announced results do not demonstrate any risk regarding the company viability.
If any workforce reduction would be needed, we requiere a voluntary-leave-only program.
France as successfully initiated such a program with FR HR's Help.
This experience could easily be shared at a larger scale.

Let's build together a better world, a better Society and more socialy responsible company.

... And you know what ? employee morale will bring more success to the company and its customers.

Beeing Fair - Oracle Ethics

Oracle Ethic duties are enforced in many levels, and we all periodically receive the "training refresh" workflow reminders. These duties have already led to employee dismissals.

However you need to be aware that Oracle Corporation is leading many Oracle Holdings in Cayman islands, Mauritus, Luxembourg.

Why would such dark accounting subs be of any interest for a bright Sarbanes Oxley compliant company ?

Layoff times are a crude reality.
The whole of Europe and the CFDT labor union are very dubious about those subs, in a time where highest morale is due to be held worldwide.
We cannot let money flows run lonely without any accountability nor employee nor governemental control.

We encourage every employee and employee rep to enquire for a clear undestanding of those haven holdings activities.

BEA CrossGain International		Cayman Islands
BEA International		Cayman Islands
Oracle International Holding Company		Cayman Islands
PeopleSoft C.I. Holdings Ltd.		Cayman Islands
SPL WorldGroup International Ltd.		Cayman Islands

Oracle Holding Antilles NV
Oracle Global Mauritus Ltd.

Please report any misconduct or ethics violation to our collective for a transparent employee driven investigation - Contact us :


The Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act
SEC Report (free account needed), Commercial Ethics Guide, FR Alter Eco CAC40 and offshore islands,
World Bank Policy, The Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act

500 + comments on oracle layoff blog

You will find interesting informations on Oracle Layoffs blog, reaching 300 comments world wide.

A few ones below, to give you the opportunity for further reading.

#30 I was let go today, 9 years with the company and countless awards for utilizations and leadership roles in major high profile projects.

#42 Very cheap on severance package: One month for the first year you serve at Oracle and one week for each additional year you serve. 30 days Oracle covered COBRA. Brutal.

#47 Hey #42. Thats a better severance than in the past it used to be 2 weeks for the first year and 1 week for each subsequent year. Larry musta been feeling generous.

#65 I was a bea acquisition employee and we get the bea acquisition package which is 3 months severance, 3 months cobra. The regular package for non-bea oracle employees is 2 weeks for each year of employment, 30 days cobra. (which really sucks for a large company. I am glad I got the bea package) Each large acquisition (peoplesoft, etc) may have a separate type of package that was part of the acquisition agreement.

#74 Re #70, no email just a call from your manager and a Fedex package by noon in the US.

#90 I am on vacation and was on vacation when US layoffs happened. I haven’t got any email from my manager abt layoff. I am wondering abt the process they follow to lay off an employee who is on vacation.

#231 Listen, if you are on a PIP you are history. Been there, done that, put on a PIP ahead of a merger for no reason at all, adhered to the PIP, and was still terminated.

A PIP these days is akin to a shot across the bow of your battleship. They are trying to give you time to get yourself lost from their sandbox. I would take advantage of it.
Never seen a single person who lived to tell about how ‘I was once on a PIP here’.
Sad dealings and not my preferred way to handle things but…..

#255 Rumor (Oracle, India): “One of the world’s largest software products company Oracle is known to have begun linking the payment of its 20,000-odd employees in India with the productive hours they spend in the company. This has given way to salary cuts, ranging between 10 and 50 per cent.”

#379 Oracle has purchased far too many software companies and is quickly gaining the reputation as a software burial ground. They have redundant product lines and are rapidly losing focus on the message they are trying to deliver to customers. Customers of software products Oracle has bought are growing more and more hostile toward Oracle and will close then out from any future business.

#380 Question is what really works.
IF acquisitions and consolidation works for both Corps and customer then its good.
Else it is not a sustainable model.

#507 As a former employee that was acquired by the big O, I have nothing but dismay for this company. Once we were acquired our existing customer base treated us much more hostile, despised the acquisition and put a roadblocks for doing further business. They all indicated doing business with Oracle was painful, slow, ineffective, and viewed Oracle as opportunists that capitalized on the software maintenance revenue streams, jack up the consulting rates, and blow the synergy/integration/red stack non sense at the base. When you swallow up as many companies as Oracle has you will get a case of bad indigestion evidenced by lack of focus and genuinely pissed off customer base.

Reduction in Force wave is coming

Rumors, Rumors, we don't see yet major moves actionned in Europe.
August UK Consulting RIF, and EMEA BEA redundancy RIF were the last ones announced.
However, Economy slowdown is hitting certain areas and we just expect announcement to be made, probably in the consulting/Apps area.
Oracle European Work's Council and Country local work's Council will have to be officially consulted before any redundancy plan deployment.

Still "officially" unconfirmed yet, you will see many goodbyes in the US, dated Jan 9th in the Layoff Blog

Are we talking about 8% of the sales force, 20% of its consulting staff, or just a few hundreds world wide ?

Severance package reported through comments seems very cheap for a company like Oracle : One month for the first year you serve and one week for each additional year you serve. 30 days Oracle covered COBRA (Medical Care).
Given all the extra efforts done worldwide and the company margin, we call for better level of global benefits towards the ex-employees.

Vision 2010 or 1929 ?
Read More :
Oracle Major Layoff - Computer World
Facts and Rumors - The Economist
Spectator October, Spectator November, Layoff Blog, Digital Daily,
India (40 layoffs over 25000)