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California layoffs / Cisco Systems, Inc.

Cisco Systems, Inc. California Layoffs 2026: What Employees Should Know

Cisco Systems, Inc. has 5 layoff notices on file with California's Employment Development Department (EDD) under the state's Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, covering 692 jobs in San Francisco County, Santa Clara County. That is what the state has published since July 2025, not an all-time total. If you were one of them, here is what the filing says, how much notice the law asks for, and what to look at before you sign anything.

Updated

What the filing says

These are the details as Cisco Systems, Inc. reported them to the state. The EDD publishes every notice, and these figures come from the state's report as retrieved on Sep 10, 2026.

LocationCountyNotice givenJobs endWorkersType
MilpitasSanta Clara CountyAug 13, 2025Oct 13, 2025157Layoff Permanent
San FranciscoSan Francisco CountyAug 13, 2025Oct 13, 202564Layoff Permanent
MilpitasSanta Clara CountyJun 16, 2026Jul 13, 2026154Layoff Permanent
San FranciscoSan Francisco CountyJun 16, 2026Jul 13, 202681Layoff Permanent
San JoseSanta Clara CountyJun 16, 2026Jul 13, 2026236Layoff Permanent

How much notice the law requires

California's WARN Act requires 60 days of advance written notice before a covered mass layoff, and its only statutory exception is a physical calamity or an act of war — far narrower than federal law's three. Who is covered and how the thresholds are counted is in our California WARN Act guide.

What this filing shows

The shortest gap in these filings is 27 calendar days between the notice date and the date the jobs end. That is less than the 60 days the statute describes.

In dates: counting 60 days back from the Jul 13, 2026 last day of work lands on May 14, 2026, and that notice is dated Jun 16, 2026.

This is a fact drawn from the public filing, not a conclusion that anyone broke the law. The date an employer records is not always the date workers were told, employers of different sizes are covered differently, and exceptions can apply. Whether it means anything in your case is exactly what a free consultation sorts out.

Cisco Systems severance: what to check before you sign

A severance offer is not the notice pay the WARN Act describes. Severance you were already promised — in a contract, a handbook, or a union agreement — cannot be used to satisfy that obligation, though Labor Code section 1402 does let an employer reduce a back-pay award by voluntary payments it was never required to make. A release may also give up more than you expect. Justin reviews severance agreements before workers sign. What to check before you decide is in our full guide to the California WARN Act.

Two things worth doing this week either way. File for unemployment now — WARN money does not reduce it, and the filings here run through Jul 13, 2026, so you do not have to wait for your last day. And keep every document, including the notice itself and anything showing when it arrived.

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What your notice was required to include

Timing is only half of what Labor Code section 1401 asks for. The notice itself has to contain specific things, and California added most of this list for notices issued on or after January 1, 2026. 3 of the 5 notices here fall after that date; the earlier ones were not subject to the new content rules. If you kept your copy, read it against the full six-item checklist in our WARN Act guide — everything federal law requires, whether transition help is being coordinated, working contact details for your workforce board and for the employer itself, and CalFresh information.

Source: Labor Code section 1401, as amended by SB 617, effective January 1, 2026. A notice missing something from that list is not automatically a violation with a remedy attached — whether a gap matters depends on the employer, the action, and what else happened.

Questions people are asking

What is the Cisco Systems severance package?

The WARN notice Cisco Systems filed with the state does not list severance terms, and we do not publish any employer's package. A WARN notice reports how many jobs end, where, and when. Severance is a separate contract offered at the employer's discretion. California law does not require it, and an employer cannot use contractual severance to satisfy what the WARN Act requires, so being offered a package does not by itself answer whether notice pay is also owed. If you have an offer in hand, the terms in front of you are the ones that matter, and they are worth reading closely before the deadline on them runs.

Am I owed severance from Cisco Systems, Inc.?

California law does not require severance on its own, and a severance offer is a separate thing from WARN pay. An employer cannot use contractual severance to satisfy its WARN obligation, so being offered a package does not answer whether notice pay is also owed.

Does taking the severance reduce what I could recover?

It depends on why the money is being paid. Severance the employer was already obligated to provide — under a contract, a policy, a benefit plan, or a union agreement — cannot be set against what the WARN Act requires. A payment that is genuinely voluntary and unconditional, one the employer had no legal obligation to make, can reduce that liability. Wages for work you actually performed during the notice period are not voluntary severance at all. Which category Cisco Systems's offer falls into is a question about the document in front of you, not about the layoff, and it is one of the better reasons to have the paperwork read before the deadline on it runs.

Why do co-workers have different last days?

The filings here list 2 separate last days of work. Employers commonly stagger a reduction so some functions run longer than others. Your own notice period is measured against your date, not the earliest one in the filing, so two people at the same employer can be in genuinely different positions.

What if I did not get 60 days of notice?

California's WARN Act requires 60 days of advance written notice before a covered mass layoff, and its only statutory exception is a physical calamity or an act of war. That is far narrower than federal law, which has three exceptions. The shortest gap in these filings is 27 days, which is 33 short of 60. That is arithmetic on two published dates and not a finding that anyone broke the law: the recorded date is not always the date workers were told, and coverage depends on the employer's size and how many people were let go.

Can I still collect unemployment?

Yes. Under Labor Code section 1407, WARN-related payments are not treated as wages for unemployment purposes, so they cannot be used to deny or reduce your benefits in California. You do not have to wait for your last day — the filings here run through Jul 13, 2026 — and filing early is generally better than filing late.

Does taking a new job hurt my claim?

No. Wages you earn at a new job during the notice period do not reduce what Cisco Systems may owe under WARN. That holds even if you start before Jul 13, 2026, the last day of work in these filings. You do not need to delay a job search to protect a claim.

How long do I have to act?

Generally three years. The federal WARN Act sets no limitations period of its own, so courts borrow the closest state deadline, which in California is the three-year period for a liability created by statute. The clock starts when you suffer an employment loss, not when the notice went out. Measured from the last day of work in these filings, Jul 13, 2026, three years runs to about Jul 13, 2029. If this was a layoff rather than an outright termination, the loss may not count until the layoff has lasted more than six months, which can start the clock later still. Treat all of it as an outer edge rather than a plan. Other claims arising from the same layoff run much shorter, and a severance offer usually carries its own deadline measured in days.

Where a layoff can raise a legal question

A layoff is lawful on its own, and nothing below is a statement about Cisco Systems. These are the places California law can still come into play, depending on the facts of your own situation.

  • The severance you were asked to signA release can give up claims you did not know you had, and the terms are sometimes negotiable.
  • How you were selectedA reduction in force still cannot be used to cut someone for a protected reason such as age, disability, pregnancy, or a complaint they made.
  • Your final paycheckCalifornia sets when final wages are due at termination, and unpaid time or accrued vacation can carry penalties on top of the wages.
  • The length of the notice periodWhere a notice period turns out to fall short of what the law required, the question usually belongs to everyone in the same position rather than to one person.

General information about California law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.

What has been reported

Press coverage of this layoff, summarized and attributed. This is reporting rather than the filing itself, and we did not independently verify it.

Cisco's June 2026 California filings cover 236 positions at its San Jose headquarters at 170 West Tasman Drive, 154 in Milpitas and 81 in San Francisco, and the company described all 471 reductions as permanent, according to DQIndia. Employees were notified on May 14, 2026, with terminations scheduled to begin July 13.

Engineering roles made up the largest share of the cuts. DQIndia reported 56 software engineer positions, 39 software engineering technical leader positions, 17 engineering product managers, 15 software engineering leaders and 12 directors of software engineering, with further reductions among engineering program managers, site reliability engineers and quality assurance staff across all three offices.

The California cuts are part of a global reduction of fewer than 4,000 positions announced May 13, the same day Cisco reported $15.8 billion in fiscal third-quarter revenue. SDxCentral reported that CEO Chuck Robbins framed the reduction as readjusting Cisco's operating model around AI while the company continues investing in silicon, optics and security.

Details worth knowing

  • Notices went out May 14, 2026, with terminations beginning July 13, 2026, according to DQIndia.
  • Robbins said the company had to make "hard decisions, about where we invest, how we're organised, and how our cost structure reflects the opportunity in front of us," as reported by DQIndia.

Sources: DQIndia (opens in a new tab)SDxCentral (opens in a new tab)

Recent coverage

Coverage of Cisco Systems matched by our news monitor. These are the publishers' own reports, not the filing, and we have not independently verified them.

What the numbers show

  • The filings name 3 locations: Milpitas, San Francisco and San Jose.
  • They cover 4 separate addresses rather than a single site, so co-workers at different locations may have received different dates.
  • The jobs do not all end on the same day. The filings list 2 separate last days of work, running from October 13, 2025 to July 13, 2026.
  • The shortest gap between notice and last day here is 27 days, against a statewide median of 61 days across every notice on file.
  • By headcount it is the 16th-largest of the 630 employer layoffs tracked here.
  • The 692 workers leaving Cisco Systems, Inc. re-enter a job market where Santa Clara County unemployment stood at 4% in June 2026, below the 5.2% statewide rate (Bureau of Labor Statistics, not seasonally adjusted).
  • The filings came in waves: 2 notices in August 2025 covering 221 jobs, then 3 notices in June 2026 covering 471 jobs.

These are counts and comparisons drawn from the published filings, not findings about Cisco Systems.

Free job-search help near the affected sites

America's Job Center of California is the state's no-cost network for laid-off workers: help filing and keeping unemployment benefits, federally funded retraining, and résumé and interview coaching. Your WARN notice may name one; this is the closest to the site in these filings.

Locations and hours change — confirm before visiting, or find another center with the EDD's center locator (opens in a new tab). Directory: U.S. Department of Labor, Jul 31, 2026; distances are straight-line from the address in the filing.

Other layoffs filed in Santa Clara County around the same time

77 employers have WARN notices on file in Santa Clara County, covering 12,657 workers. These filed within about a quarter of this one.

Listed because they appear in the same county in the same public data. No connection between these employers is implied.

California wage claims filed against Cisco Systems

California employers face claims under the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA), which lets an employee sue for civil penalties over Labor Code violations on behalf of the state. The state publishes every filing. 2 PAGA cases naming this employer are on that record, including the settlements below.

These are outcomes in other people’s cases, obtained by other lawyers, taken from the state’s public filing record. They are not results of this firm, and past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. What any individual recovers depends on their own hours, pay records, and dates.

  • Court-approved settlement · 2024

    $1,925,000

    A group of current and former non-exempt employees of Cisco Systems in California alleged they were not paid for all hours worked, denied meal and rest breaks, not paid overtime, not given accurate wage statements, and not reimbursed for business expenses. A settlement was reached to resolve these claims. The court approved the settlement as fair and reasonable.

    Covered All current and former employees who worked for Cisco in a non-exempt position in California at any time from April 5, 2018 through February 15, 2023. The settlement resolved class claims as well as PAGA penalties.

    Employees covered
    2,687
    Attorneys' fees
    $641,666
    To the state (LWDA)
    $75,000

    Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara · 22CV396821 · Cisco Systems denied liability; a settlement is not an admission.

  • Proposed settlement · 2026

    $1,200,000

    Current and former employees of Cisco in California were allegedly required to keep their wages and working conditions secret, sign away their right to disclose such information, and agree to terms that Cisco knew were illegal. The proposed PAGA settlement resolves these allegations without any admission of liability by Cisco.

    Covered All current and former employees who worked for Cisco in California at any time from June 25, 2024 through the date of the Approval Order and Judgment. The settlement resolved PAGA civil penalties only.

    Attorneys' fees
    $400,000

    Superior Court of the State of California, for the County of Santa Clara · 25CV474024 · Cisco Systems denied liability; a settlement is not an admission.

A PAGA case is not a class action, and there is nothing to opt out of. A PAGA settlement resolves civil penalties owed to the state — most of which the state keeps — and it does not necessarily resolve your own unpaid wages, missed break premiums, or final-paycheck penalties. If you worked here and were not paid correctly, that is a separate question worth asking about. How California wage claims work.

Key points

Each point is explained and sourced above · Verified September 10, 2026

Key points from Cisco Systems, Inc. California layoffs 2026, verified as of September 10, 2026

  • Workers affected · San Francisco County, Santa Clara County · published since July 2025

    692

    CA EDD WARN report

  • Notices filed · California · published July 2025 to September 2026

    5

    CA EDD WARN report

  • Jobs end · As filed

    Jul 13, 2026

    CA EDD WARN report

  • Days between notice and last day · Arithmetic on two published dates

    27 calendar days

    CA EDD WARN report

  • Approximate outer claim deadline · 3 years from the last day of work — an outer edge, other claims run shorter

    About Jul 13, 2029

    Code Civ. Proc. § 338(a)

  • Santa Clara County unemployment rate · vs 5.2% statewide, not seasonally adjusted

    4% (June 2026)

    BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics

  • Notice California law describes · California

    60 days before a covered mass layoff

    Lab. Code § 1401

  • Available exceptions · California

    Physical calamity or act of war only

    Lab. Code § 1401

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27 days' notice on record

EDD records show Cisco's June 2026 WARN filings for San Jose and Milpitas left 27 days between the notice date and the effective date. California law requires 60 days of notice before a mass layoff, with almost no exceptions.

Workers laid off from Cisco's San Jose or Milpitas facilities in the 2026 reductions, and potentially workers from related California filings, depending on the dates and notice each person actually received.

How WARN class claims work

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