"You are well done, thanks, goodbye"

Why did the ABBYY IT company with Russian roots fired several hundred Russian citizens in Cyprus, Serbia and Hungary for one day? Its employees tell

At the end of September, the ABBYY IT company, which moved after the full-scale invasion of Russia to Ukraine, conducted mass reduction in offices in Limassol, Belgrade and Budapest. According to various estimates of employees, 300-500 people lost their work, and all of them - with Russian or Belarusian passports. ABBYY was founded in Russia, moved in 2022 and helped many ITSHNOVs move to Europe.

ABBYY representative Gina Ray, in a commentary for the Mediazone, called the incident “transformation and modernization” of the company, but did not explain the cause of mass layoffs.

- People from all over the world work in Abbyy, representatives of more than 30 nationalities from 13 different countries. Abbyy has embarked on the path of transformation and modernization of business, and as part of these efforts we reorganized key operating functions.

[...] This global transformation allows us to reinvest in the future growth and accelerate the innovation of products and solutions for our customers, ”Ray answered. Abbyy does not disclose the number of employees affected by the transformation.

The head of the Iskra Human Right Association Hera Ugryumova told Novy-Europe that the organization sent several collective complaints of former ABBYY employees to the Ministry of Labor and the bodies of Hungary, Cyprus, Serbia and Germany similar to them. At the time of publication, at least 40 people turned to the Spark.

Ugryumova shared with the editors of one of the appeals to the Serbian Ministry of Labor (we give fragments of circulation) :

- With regret, we learned that the company [Abbyy] took place mass dismissals of Russian citizens. We believe that these actions are discriminatory and contradict the principles of equality and non -scrimination, which are enshrined in international human rights documents, as well as in the legislation of Serbia.

Each worker has the right to fair and equal treatment, regardless of his nationality or origin. [...]

We urge the Ministry of Labor, Employment, on veterans and social issues to investigate these cases and take the necessary measures to protect the rights of workers, including preventing discriminatory practices in labor relations.

At the time of publication, not one of the complaints was considered.

What is ABBYY: a Russian company that has become an American

ABBYY was founded in 1989 by a student of MIPT David Yan called Bit Software. In 1997, she was renamed Abbyy.

The company develops software, simplifying the processing of documents, analysis of business processes, streaming of documents and data and improves the technologies of optical symbol recognition.

In 2008, ABBYY expertsdeveloped a program for recognizing answers of the exam forms. In the fall of 2022, the company left the Russian market, but continued to work under the new legal entity Content AI.

The founders of the new company were former leaders of the Russian unit. Content AI is focused on the development and distribution of software for the Russian market, as well as on customer support. In addition to Content AI, according to the Kremlin media, several more companies affiliated in Abbyy work in Russia.

Today ABBYY is an American company.

Novyevropa contacted several former ABBYY employees and found out how they are experiencing dismissal and what they plan to do next.

"There were not even close premises here"

Konstantin worked in Abbyy for three and a half years. He began his career in the Russian unit, and then relocated to the Serbian division of the company. The need to transfer employees to other ABBYY branches, according to Konstantin, appeared due to the prospect of the company to lose key contracts with Western banks:

- When the “special operation” began, there were insids that they would be exported by employees. Because, according to rumors, large financial auditors came and said that the company would not receive a single loan until it has at least some kind of connection with Russia and the CIS states-states.

For relocation, employees were offered several countries to choose from: Cyprus, Serbia and Hungary. Not everyone agreed to move after the company - they were reduced. According to Konstantin, this happened in accordance with Russian legislation with all payments and bonuses. The employee tried to find a more profitable working proposal in Russia, but did not find it and went to Serbia.

After moving to a new country, Konstantin and his colleagues were a little worried about possible problems due to the presence of Russian citizenship. However, fears quickly dispelled. In favor of stability in the Serbian unit, effective reports, graphs, presentations and high profits of the branch spoke.

According to Konstantin, the news about the reduction was a surprise:

-I have been working for many years, and in Russia, if something is approaching, it always leaks somewhere, there will be rumors. There were not even close premises here.

To the call of the Serbian unit, the leaders of Abbyy invited 98 Russians. Such a list was not embarrassed by none of the invited, because there were a lot of key employees of the company in it. It seemed to Konstantin that mass dismissal was simply impossible. However, shortly before calling, information began to seep that similar collles were scheduled in the ABBYY branches in Cyprus and Hungary. This gave rise to a wave of rumors about a possible reduction.

Konstantin says that on online meetings all employees, except for the three performing managers, turned off microphones and the opportunity to write comments:

- They said: “You are well done, thanks, goodbye. Everything is blocked, all contracts for termination of contracts will be sent to personal mail, ”the former employee recalls the call. - We blocked access to all resources of the company and left the external mail for communication. The most interesting thing is that at the moment when they turned off access, they dropped production: they had some engineer who did not know how to do what Russian engineers did.

Konstantin is very worried about colleagues. He believes that Abbyy acted absolutely unethical. The former employee compares the reduction with the American methodology of dismissal in corporations, which would be normal to resolve such a issue on one day. Konstantin does not understand how such an approach can comply with Serbian law:

- We will call with experts on Serbian legislation, who can outline the prospect of collectively challenging the decision of Abbyy.

As far as I read, according to the laws of Serbia, such a reduction is impossible without prior consistency with the Ministry of Labor and the trade union.

Plus, the Russian diaspora in Serbia began to write right away everywhere and everywhere [about us], for which many thanks to them.

The man believes that such a reduction can cause some harm to the Serbian economy. For this reason, the local Ministry of Labor may have a special interest in the side of the dismissed employees. The former employee explains that, according to his joints with colleagues, more than half of the department’s employees were reduced:

- According to our data, about 300 out of 500 people were reduced, only employees with Russian citizenship were present at the meeting. The company still remained [Russian] employees, they were invited to a similar meeting without a chat and microphones. According to our estimates, about 50 people will remain in the company.

Now Konstantin is coming off proposals for new work from around the world. But, according to him, this is due to its rare specialization - the former colleagues are offered not so actively.

American -style abbreviation

Valentine became an employee of Abbyy in 2006. For 15 years, he left the company several times and returned to his previous place of work. The beginning of the war Valentine found in Abbyy. A few months after the full -scale invasion of Russia to Ukraine, the management informed employees that the company intends to reject employees outside the country. Those who refused to move were fired.

- There was no particular choice. Honestly, I wanted to leave. So I agreed. I understood that my vacancies in any situation in Russia would rather not remain, ”says Valentin.

According to the former employee, few thought that Abbyy intends to dismiss the Russians from the Hungarian unit. This information was at the level of rumors - not everyone took it seriously. Basically, it was about the fact that the company plans to reduce its restructuring.

On September 30, Abbyy planned several collective calls with subordinates who have Russian citizenship. The content was the same: the employees were dismissed. Valentine called the last call in an American style:

- They told us: “Oh guys, we reduce you. By the way, your access will be taken away now, your working laptop will turn into pumpkin. ” So, in fact, it happened.

“There is a business, everything can happen, but I didn’t expect this,” he said. Valentine and the presence of a second citizenship did not help.

The man does not intend to challenge the decision of the company's management, because it seems to him meaningless. He does not see violations of the Labor Code:

- I have no complaints about my former leaders and my Hungarian colleagues. People, when we came to sign the documents, cried directly. And they [the leaders] for hours in front of us apologized that this was not their decision.

Now the man plans to look for a new job. Despite the fact that Abbyy paid two -month compensation, according to Valentine, this can not help much, since it is difficult to find work in IT in two months: “Many people will have to leave Hungary.”

"All unique knowledge in the company in the heads of Russians"

Mikhail got a job at the Moscow office of Abbyy in 2017. In June 2022, he and his wife went to the Hungarian working visa. In September of the same year, the couple finally managed to leave Russia.

In December 2022, the Hungarian department of Abbyy held the first wave of abbreviations. This also affected the officers-rodant. In April 2024, the management reported that it plans to reduce about 80% of the testing department in which Michael worked. The spring wave of dismissal did not touch him, but forced him to worry.

Former ABBYY employee says that rumors about the new wave of abbreviations have long went on, but few believed in them:

- All unique knowledge in the company [are] in the heads of Russians. If the QA could still be somehow reduced, then no one really thought about the dismissal of development.

There were sluggish attempts to impose on us outsors from India, but they were so, excuse me, stupid that it seemed that they quickly abandoned this idea. I interviewed five people with 4–13 years of experience - not one of them even pulled a full -fledged Jun.

Mikhail seriously began to worry when he saw the news on Abbyy about the opening of the Department in the Indian city of Bangalor. Late in the evening of September 29, many employees came a letter with an invitation to the call on September 30, the tester recalls.

Chronology of dismissal compiled by Mikhail (in time of Budapest)

September 29, 22:30

Almost all employees receive a letter on the Mandatory Townhall (mandatory meeting). Cyprus - 15:00, Serbia - 15:30, Hungary - 16:00. The letter does not display a list of call participants, but it can be seen in the Teams chat.

In the list of Hungarian call-only Russian employees, eicars and two top managers: Patrick Gene and Ulf Persson. In Cyprus and Serbia, the situation is similar. The chat is blocked.

September 30, 10:00

Colleagues from the support service write that they were fired, and access to the working accounts were immediately taken away.

First half of the day

Some of the key employees say that the leaders of their departments conducted a tete-a-a-a-tent call without the participation of top managers. They were informed about dismissal and told how difficult this decision became for the leadership.

Cyprus, 15:00

Employees were told that their positions were reduced, and the office is closed.

Serbia, 15:30

Employees were told the same about reducing their positions, but not about the office.

Hungary, 16:00

The leadership reported the same as Serbian employees. During the call, access to the working accounts were selected. Immediately after it, a letter came to the abbreviated with the proposed conditions for the consumerness for dismissal. They differ in the number of salaries - from two to five with payment for two months.

17:30

The call of management with the remaining employees. They were informed that the company had occurred, and parted with some of their colleagues. There were reports that Russian citizens are no longer hired due to an updated domestic policy.

Mikhail is not known about the dismissal of citizens of Ukraine and other countries, except for two private cases when employees from France and Latvia were reduced:

- At least 200 people fired. More than 90 workers in Cyprus, 70 in Serbia, 40 in Hungary. Single Russian employees remained who do not really understand why they were not fired.

The three departments, as the former ABBYY tester summarizes, turned out to be almost empty. Most Mikhail is now worried about former colleagues with children who may be difficult to stay in Hungary. He considers his own chances to continue working in this country, since he has extremely little time to employ a reinstall and draw up the necessary documents.

Mikhail and his colleagues are still thinking about whether they would dispute whether ABBYY's decision will dispute.