Some Apple employees in San Diego were reportedly told to relocate to Austin, Texas, or risk termination.
The at-risk employees are part of a 121-person team called the Data Operations Annotations, which focuses on artificial intelligence projects, namely improving and advancing Apple’s Siri voice technology.
An Apple spokesperson told Bloomberg the move is a result of the company’s goal to merge the San Diego DOA team with the other DOA employees in Austin.
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“Data Operations Annotations teams in the US together at our campus in Austin, where a majority of the team is already based,” the spokesperson told the outlet. “Everyone currently employed will have the opportunity to continue their role with Apple in Austin.”
According to the unnamed sources, employees will have until the end of February to make a decision, and should they decide not to relocate, they’ll be terminated from the company on April 26 and given four weeks of severance, plus an additional week for every year worked.
Those who choose to move will be given a $7,000 relocation stipend — and keep their jobs.
Employees in the DOA group had initially been told that they would be relocated to a new Apple campus in the same city by the end of January and were given moving boxes to pack up belongings. The news of the move to Texas was reportedly just announced days ago.
In the report, sources said that a majority of the San Diego-based workers are unwilling to make the move.
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Apple, which has avoided mass layoffs that have plagued and rocked the tech sector in the past year, has been cracking down on its in-office mandates.
In March, the company reportedly told employees that they must return to the office three days a week, with some management teams tracking employee attendance through badge records and telling employees that they could be terminated if they did not comply.
