Oracle Caps Severance At 26 Weeks As Layoffs Sweep India Operations, Future Bonuses Cancelled

Oracle has set a ceiling of 26 weeks of base salary as severance for employees caught in its latest round of layoffs. The cuts have hit staff globally, with a fresh wave in India, the company's biggest workforce hub outside the US, reportedly affecting around 3,000 employees. Oracle has not confirmed the number of employees let go in India.

How the severance formula works?

According to Business Insider, laid-off employees are entitled to four weeks of base pay for their first year on the job, plus one additional week for every year after that, with six months or more counted as a full year in an employee's final stretch. Total payouts are capped at 26 weeks regardless of tenure. Payment is expected roughly three weeks after an employee signs off on a severance agreement and returns company equipment. Anyone rehired within six months of being let go may be required to hand back part of that payout, the report said.

Stock awards and bonuses take a hit

The layoffs also close the door on unvested equity. Business Insider reports that all unvested stock options are canceled the moment employment ends, though departing staff typically have a three-month window to exercise options that had already vested, subject to original expiration terms, a window that shrinks to one month for options tied to acquired companies. Unvested restricted stock units are wiped out too, while RSUs that had already vested stay put in employees' Fidelity accounts.

Corporate bonus eligibility ends with the termination as well. Staff on sales or consulting bonus plans can still collect payouts already earned under their existing agreements, but corporate bonus plans stop accruing any future value. Commissions follow a similar rule: they stop building on an employee's last working day, though anything already earned but unpaid will still be honored.

Oracle's Employee Stock Purchase Plan shuts off too, contributions from the current cycle are refunded, without interest, in the final paycheck, except for employees exiting during the September 16–30 or March 16–31 purchase windows, whose contributions go toward stock purchases instead.

Oracle India cuts span Health, Security and Sales units

The India layoffs landed this week across several business lines, including Oracle Health, OCI Security, Oracle Financial Services, sales, and data centre operations, with cuts touching both entry-level and mid-management staff. This marks Oracle's second major restructuring in India this year, following an April round that affected roughly 12,000 employees. The company's India footprint spans Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, Mumbai and Noida, and had exceeded 50,000 employees before this year's reductions began.

Part of a wider global restructuring

The India cuts arrive alongside a broader worldwide restructuring effort tied to Oracle's aggressive AI infrastructure spending. The company kicked off a second phase of US layoffs earlier in the week and is expected to extend similar cuts to Asia-Pacific and Australia. Business Insider cited an email sent to an affected employee, in which Oracle attributed the decision to eliminate the role to "careful consideration" of the company's current business needs as part of broader organisational change.

Oracle's overall headcount has already shrunk substantially: the company's global workforce dropped by about 21,000 employees - roughly 13 percent - during the fiscal year ended May 31, falling from 162,000 the previous year to around 141,000 by the first half of 2026. Oracle has also revised its restructuring cost estimate upward to approximately $2.8 billion for fiscal 2026, covering severance, contract terminations and related expenses.