Intel offers up to 19 salaries to laid-off employees if they don’t fight firings

Intel Israel’s latest wave of layoffs comes with a stark choice for employees: accept a substantial severance package based on years of service, or challenge the decision and risk leaving with far less.

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As part of the company’s sweeping cost-cutting measures, Intel is offering generous compensation packages to hundreds of employees expected to be impacted in Israel.

Under the current plan, workers with five years at the company will receive four months’ salary if they accept the package. Those with more than a decade at Intel stand to receive the equivalent of 10 months’ pay. Veteran employees with over 30 years of service could walk away with a payout that could reach 19 months’ salary.

But the severance program comes with a condition that has frustrated some employees: if a worker wishes to challenge their dismissal by requesting a hearing, a standard labor procedure in Israel, they risk forfeiting the expanded compensation. Intel’s practice is to grant the hearing as a formality, but if the company decides not to reverse its decision, the departing employee receives only the basic statutory severance required by law, rather than the more generous package.

Intel Israel began issuing layoff notices as part of the latest round of cutbacks on Monday. Calcalist recently revealed that, for the first time, the layoffs will also reach the company’s Kiryat Gat plant, which until now had avoided staff cuts but is now a significant part of the current wave. According to estimates, several hundred employees will be laid off at this stage. The company said it has no comment on the issue.

Intel Israel currently employs about 9,300 workers, around 4,000 of whom work at the Kiryat Gat plant.