Hundreds of Chinese employees at Microsoft’s Nokia phone business protest mass layoffs

Hundreds of Chinese employees at Microsoft's Nokia phone business protested today against mass layoffs that the US tech company announced last month, Reuters reported citing an employee and pictures posted on social media networks.

The employees held banners and raised slogans against ''Microsoft's hostile takeover and violent layoffs'' for five hours until ''they had sore throats,'' said the employee who was among the protestors and so declined to be identified.

According to the employee, the protesters would convene on Friday afternoon to discuss demands they would present to the company.

The software giant on 17 July announced, the deepest job cuts in its 39-year history, amounting to 18,000 positions (See: Microsoft cutting 18,000 jobs worldwide to ease Nokia burden).

According to Microsoft, up to 12,500 of those jobs would come from Nokia, the Finnish handset maker it bought in April in a $7.2 billion friendly takeover.

The protests happened at a Beijing research centre and factory employing 2,400 people adding the troubles the US software giant had been facing in China.

Chinese authorities raided Microsoft offices in four cities this week as part of an ongoing anti-monopoly investigation announced on Tuesday (Microsoft under anti-monopoly probe in China).

On a broader note, China had witnessed increased labour disputes over the past year in tandem with a slowdown in growth in its economy.

Meanwhile, according to ITProPortal, Microsoft could argue that the cuts did not come without warning. At the time he assumed office as Microsoft CEO in February, Nadella made clear his plans to cut workforce to compete with more agile internet-based rivals.

The cuts represented around 14 per cent of Microsoft's worldwide workforce, and for now the rest of the company appeared safe.