Oracle’s AI-Driven Mass Layoff of 30,000 Draws Backlash Over Severance Terms and Forfeited Stock

Oracle’s abrupt termination of an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 employees via email on March 31 has sparked significant employee pushback over what many regarded as inadequate severance. The company offered four weeks of base pay plus one additional week per year of service, capped at 26 weeks, but crucially did not accelerate unvested stock grants — meaning some long-tenured employees forfeited hundreds of thousands of dollars in RSUs that were months from vesting.

At least 90 affected employees signed a petition urging Oracle to match severance terms offered by Meta, Microsoft, and Cloudflare, all of which provided accelerated vesting and more generous payouts during their own AI-driven restructurings. Oracle declined to negotiate. The company also classified some hybrid workers as remote, potentially reducing their legal protections under the WARN Act.