Google will delay the payment of bonuses to the staff to control expenses

Google, associated with online search, defers the payment of part of the bonus received by its staff at the end of the year. Alphabet, which runs Google, said this is being done as part of a change to the new worker performance management system. The company will pay an 80 percent up-front bonus to eligible workers, with the remainder delivered later.

A company spokesman told Reuters that staff had been informed about this last year. Due to a lack of demand and worsening economic conditions, many tech companies are trying to cut back on spending. Alphabet has also initiated layoffs. This has affected more than 200 workers in the company’s Health Sciences division. Amazon, Facebook-run Meta and Microsoft have laid off thousands of workers.

The upfront bonus will be awarded to Google workers in January and the remaining 20 percent can be received in March or April. This will help Google carry its cost into the next quarter. Starting next year, the company plans to pay all Christmas bonuses in March. Previously, the entire bonus at Google was paid in the first month of the year. The growth of the cloud software and services industry has suffered due to reduced customer spending. Google is also facing difficulties due to the reduction in ad sales. Due to the slowdown, many companies have reduced advertising spending.

Difficulties are also mounting for Google in India. The company had suffered a major setback on Thursday by the Supreme Court. The court refused to suspend the approximately Rs 1338 crore penalty imposed on the company for using anti-competitive practices. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) imposed this sanction on Google for abusing its dominant position in the Android ecosystem. The company appealed against this to the National Company Law Appeals Tribunal (NCLAT). NCLAT refused to grant a provisional reprieve. Following this, Google challenged the NCLAT order in the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has asked the company to deposit 10 percent of the penalty amount within a week by order of NCLAT.