Computer software giant Microsoft has been put in the embarrassing position of asking laid-off employees to repay some of their severance package pay-outs due to an accounting error.
The world’s largest software developer laid off 1400 employees last month, and plans to cull a total of 5000 jobs over the next 18 months. The company error is believed to have overpaid some employees, and underpaid others.
Those who were overpaid were sent letters to notify them of the mistake. “An inadvertent administrative error occurred that resulted in an overpayment in severance pay by Microsoft,” the company says in a letter obtained by TechCrunch
“We ask that you repay the overpayment and sincerely apologise for any inconvenience to you.”
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
