Roundup: Microsoft's latest lay-off plan creates anxieties in Finland

Anxieties have prevailed in Finland since Microsoft announced its latest plan to dismiss 1,350 employees in the Nordic country two days ago.

It was part of the company's overall plan to cut 1,850 jobs worldwide, in an effort to "streamline" its mobile business, which has been built on the foundation of former Nokia assets.

The new round of layoffs, according to analysts, will hit Finland's struggling economy, particularly the ICT concentrated areas such as Tampere, a major city in central southern Finland, where a Microsoft R&D unit will be completely shut down.

Mayor of Tampere Anna-Kaisa Ikonen told Finnish national broadcaster Yle that she was shocked by the news, claiming that Microsoft's leave would be a setback for the city.

"This is a very unfortunate situation that we do not hope, when the unemployment rate in Tampere has been at the all time high of 18 percent for a long time," Ikonen was cited as saying.

The mayor said Tampere is seeking solutions through cooperation with central government and Microsoft to try to alleviate the upcoming challenge.

The sentiment was further reflected on Thursday in a parliamentary plenary session, where members of parliament almost unanimously criticized Microsoft's failure to keep its promise to maintain the workforce.

Microsoft promised to inherit 32,000 former Nokia employees, of them nearly 5,000 in Finland, when it purchased Nokia's phone business in 2014.

Later on, the company carried out several massive redundancies. In August 2014, Microsoft announced its plan to reduce 18,000 jobs globally, including 1,050 in Finland; one year later, it announced to close the plant in Salo and cut 2,300 jobs in Finland.

As a result of the three rounds of lay-offs, Microsoft will virtually have cut almost all the former Nokia workers during its restructuring process, according to local media reports.

Finnish Minister of Employment Jari Lindstrom claimed on Thursday that Microsoft needs to take the greatest possible responsibility for what they have done in Finland.

Besides the layoffs, Finnish Finance Minister Alexander Stubb expressed his disappointment over Microsoft's failure to invest in a pledged data center.

Microsoft made the promise in 2013 and later said a center had been established near Helsinki, but local media believed it was far from an investment of 250 million dollars it had promised.

Stubb said he was involved in the whole process of the negotiation about the Nokia-Microsoft deal when he was the Minister of Foreign Trade, and now "tough talks will be held" with Microsoft on how to proceed with the current situation.

Chairman of the opposition Christian Democratic Party, Sari Essayah reminded how Microsoft had promised in 2013 to make Finland "a center of its development work" and refrain from shifting work abroad.

Essayah claimed that Microsoft had "broken all its promises and not assumed social responsibility."

The Finnish economy has been mired in a prolonged recession since the global financial crisis in 2008, and the downturn was partially attributed to the collapse of Nokia mobile business.

The ICT business had once boosted the wealth of the tiny Nordic country, with Nokia accounting for four percent of its annual GDP from 2000 to 2007. Endit