Cisco will slash 310 San Jose headquarters jobs

SAN JOSE — Cisco Systems will chop 310 jobs at its headquarters in San Jose, the networking titan confirmed Tuesday.

Cisco disclosed the layoffs in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) filing that it provided to state government officials.

“We regret to inform you that Cisco Systems will lay off certain employees at its San Jose facility located at 170 W. Tasman Drive,” the company stated in the WARN notice, signed by Saidah Grayson Dill, director of legal services with Cisco. “The action is expected to be permanent in nature.”

The job cuts were scheduled to occur on Tuesday and on Oct. 10, Cisco said in the WARN notice. The staffing reductions could continue as late as Oct. 23.

“Cisco regularly evaluates its business and will always make the changes necessary to effectively manage our portfolio and drive the most value for our customers and shareholders,” Cisco said Tuesday in a statement emailed to this news organization.

The company added, “As a result, this can mean realigning some areas so that we can invest in others such as security, data center/cloud and networking.”

A review of the WARN notice showed that most of the jobs affected appeared to be in engineering, software and other technical positions, although some appeared to be in administrative, management and support posts.

Cisco is the largest maker of computer networking equipment. Over the 12 months that ended in July, Cisco earned $9.61 billion on revenue of $48.01 billion.

“None of the affected employees are represented by a union, nor do any have bumping rights applicable to the positions in question,” Cisco stated in the filing with the Employment Development Department.

When bumping rights do apply to companies’ positions, they typically allow employees with seniority to displace another employee, particularly in situations covered by collective bargaining agreements.

Although the tech sector has been robust, numerous job cuts have also occurred in the industry during 2017, including employee dismissals at Redwood City-based Oracle. A few weeks ago, Oracle disclosed plans to eliminate 900 jobs in Santa Clara.