It also suggests that they have known about slackers and have been OK with it.

1. Very unlikely. Which means they're lying.

2. They are incompetent for keeping people that are slacking

If people are truly just slacking off then they should be let go as part of the normal business process. This focused effort to get leaner suggests that there are many known slackers that they were OK with up to this point.

There is really no reason to call people slackers even if it's true. They should have went the patreon route of saying they fucked up and hired too many people into roles that didn't provide as much value as they need.