Good pointer Lauren.
This is now done
Florence
Le 11/05/2023 à 22:48, Lauren Worden a écrit :
Flo and Andreas,
Have you asked these questions to askcac@wikimedia.org?
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Community_Affairs_Commi...
-LW
On Thu, May 11, 2023 at 12:22 PM Florence Devouard fdevouard@gmail.com wrote:
Speaking of which... I was reading with a lot of interest the new policy regarding severance packages...
I read on the diff (1)
"The guidelines have also provided an opportunity to better align our processes globally when staff leave the Foundation. This includes a new standardized severance policy for staff at all levels of one month of severance pay for every year of their employment, up to nine months (unless local laws require otherwise) – any exceptions require a joint recommendation by the Head of Talent & Culture and the General Counsel, with final approval from the CEO. The guidelines have allowed us to make these and other policies more transparent to staff irrespective of where they live and work."
I suppose this decision was partly made because some staff did not benefit from a severance package (or only from a very poor one), in particular in cases of non-US based staff. If that's the case, it is a good move to introduce more equity.
Out of curiosity...
is the one month of severence pay entirely based on the last month salary, or the last year salary, or does it take into account the previous years (which were presumbly at lower salary) ?
for those staff who are "exceptions", is the agreement with the exception done at the beginning of the tenure, at the end of the tenure (as part of the departure discussion) or can be discussed-rediscussed at any time during the agreement ?
do you plan to communicate on the number (or percentage) of staff who are actually in the "exception" packages ? (no name obviously, but an idea of the size of that segment. Because if the "exception" segment is 50% of the 700+ staff, then equity is not it...)
do you plan to adopt a "maximum" for those in the exception segment (for example, the standard is 1 month per year employed... to limit the severance to equivalent "xx months of employed years")
last... is there an incentive system in place to invite WMF staff to make donations to WMF or to the other Wikimedia entitites (such as doubling their donations)
Salaries at the WMF seem to have climbed tremendously the past few years (2). Severance packages seriously climb as well. Many will turn a blind eye on this, but I am sure you realize that others might be concerned. I fully understand and support the approach that would result in more equity for WMF staff and recognise that this must be a challenge to implement due to the diversity of countries they live in. I also recognise the need to make working for WMF appealing, hence confortable packages. But still...Is there anything done to better address the serious escalation of severance packages of the high level executives ? (beside inviting them to leave asap they have been employed more than 5 years that is)
Flo