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Stormy day for high-tech as layoffs, pay cuts announced By Guy Grimland, Ido Solomon and Shmuel Shuster Tags: Israel News Israel's high tech industry had a hard day yesterday, as three of the nation's biggest technology companies - semiconductors company Saifun, software house Amdocs and Intel Israel, announced budget cuts and layoffs. In another sign of the economic crisis bearing down, Intel Israel, which has the biggest workforce in the local technology sector at 6,470 employees, is reducing the bonuses it plans to pay for 2008. It is also laying off maintenance and construction personnel. Intel Israel is also considering more extreme measures, such as a move to a four-day work week, if the crisis continues. Advertisement Meanwhile, Amdocs, which makes billing and customer service software for telecom companies, announced yesterday that its workers will work a four-day week in March. Its Israeli employees will take Sundays off in the pilot program, which may get extended. Three months ago, the company announced the closure of its development center in Jerusalem and firing of 200 employees in Israel and 500 workers worldwide. Amdocs workers said that dozens have been laid off from all of the firm's departments, in addition to the Jerusalem center. Nevertheless, the company claims that these are part of a plan announced late last year, and that it has no plans for another wave of layoffs. In the semiconductors sector, 80 of Saifun's 190 employees were given pink slips yesterday. Intel Israel: Layoffs unrelated to crisis Yesterday's dark day was especially stark against the backdrop of Sunday's announcement of one of the largest exits in the Israeli high tech industry in recent years - the sale of Ventor Technologies to Medtronics. But it can't be said that yesterday's news is an anomaly: there are some exits but most high tech companies in Israel are busy trying to survive these days. Most continue to implement budget cuts that were initiated in the fourth quarter of 2008. They are trimming costs and scaling down workforces, hoping to at least break even on their operational balance. Intel Israel announced yesterday that its exports totaled $1.39 billion in 2008, compared to $1.54 billion in 2007, a drop of 10%. The company says the drop in exports is not due to the economic crisis, but the sale of its Fab18 production plant (in Kiryat Gat) to Numonyx Memory Solutions and closure of the production plant in Jerusalem. Maxine Fassberg, chief executive of Intel Israel, said that employee bonuses for 2008 have been trimmed from 3.5 salaries to 2.5 because of the eroding dollar and sinking profits. Fassberg said that primarily bonuses of the firm's senior officers had been cut, but that the move, which sliced what the company refers to as the "Israeli bonus," affected all employees. Although Intel has not yet implemented efficiency measures such as moving to a shortened, four-day work week, Fassberg says that such moves are being considered for 2009 by the corporate management. There is apparently no danger yet that the company will be forced to fire its engineers, but Fassberg noted that layoffs are expected with the restructuring of the international corporation, particularly maintenance and construction personnel - including in Israel. There are plans to lay off construction and maintenance workers over the next few weeks, but in small numbers, and the move is not related to the crisis, she added. Bookmark to del.icio.us   A promising start Iraqi professor asks Israel for shipment of Hebrew books. Racist reality Reality show contestant calls his shoe 'Mohammed', angering Israel's Arabs.

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