After edtech unicorn Byju's offered its Thiruvananthapuram employees a transfer option to Bengaluru, claims have surfaced that the company forced employees in its Bengaluru headquarters to resign. Massive layoffs are taking place at Byju's Bengaluru office, according to the Karnataka State IT/ITeS Employees Union (KITU), and employees are being forced to resign from the company.
KITU Secretary Sooraj Nidiyanga told TNM, “Many employees are reluctant to come forward as they are being coerced to resign. They have been told that if they don't resign themselves, then they will be terminated from the company,” he added, alleging that the HR department at the Byju’s was threatening the employees of spoiling their future prospects by terminating them. When an employee leaves their job as a consequence of pressure from managers, supervisors or board members, it is referred to as a forced resignation. Forced resignations aren't voluntary, like a standard resignation, where the employee voluntarily leaves their position.
Alleging that Byju’s was employing various tactics to make people resign, Sooraj said, “The HR at Byju’s Bengaluru are threatening the employees saying their future job prospects will be hampered if the company terminates them and is asking employees to resign.” He further informed that there was no written communication regarding the layoffs and retrenchments. “HRs informed the employees personally that they will have to resign on their own.”
An employer normally only compensates the employees for the work they did up until the end of their final day on the job when they resign. If people are terminated, the employer can be required to pay their salary, also known as severance pay, which is money given to make up for the loss of employment. The employer and, frequently, the cause for termination determine how much severance compensation one will receive. The employees can utilise the severance to cover their costs while looking for work elsewhere. If an employee resigns, they are not given any severance pay.
“The Industrial Disputes Act mandates that companies with more than 100 employees need government authorisation before implementing layoffs or retrenchments. Retrenchments are only permissible under particular circumstances and in accordance with rules outlined in the Industrial Disputes Act,” he said. As per the Industrial Disputes Act 1947 section 2(a), unfair labour practices (to indulge in acts of force or violence), it is an offence on the part of an employer to force an employee to resign. An employee has all the legal right to refuse to sign the resignation. He further said that they had received many calls, texts, and complaints from people, including 12 people who are employed by Byju's Bengaluru.
This comes after Byju's employees in the Thiruvananthapuram office alleged that after being pressured to resign for more than a week, the company management offered them a transfer option to Bengaluru. On Tuesday, October 25, some of the employees met state Labour Minister V Sivankutty to seek compensation, following which the company management, which had not issued any official communication to the employees until then, suddenly offered them a transfer option.
Byju's Chief Content Officer Vinay Ravindra stated that although the Thiruvananthapuram centre would be shut down as part of the company's efforts to "realign its resources," the employees' jobs were still secure. In an email titled, "Relocation Opportunity for Team TVM & Other Benefits," he stated that all the employees could resume their current roles in Bengaluru. However, the employees believe that the management’s transfer offer is a tactic to lay them off later without any trouble. According to a report in The Morning Context, Byju's office in southern Bengaluru's IBC Knowledge Park will also close. “Once, the company had occupied five floors across two towers in the [Bengaluru] business district, which housed close to 4,000 employees. The news is that Reliance Trends is taking the space,” the report said.
In an effort to streamline the workforce, Byju's had previously stated that it would gradually lay off 5% of its 50,000 employees. However, according to the report by The Morning Context, sources disclosed that the company plans to lay off 12,000 employees, or close to 25% of its workforce across divisions in the upcoming fiscal year.