Restructuring Woes For Byju's Employees
As a part of their ongoing restructuring exercise and progress to become profitable, edtech major Byju's will shut down its operations in Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. In this regard, a company spokesperson said that it is discontinuing its Technopark operations in order to reduce redundancy. The Technopark location has a strength of 140 employees, according to the company.
A Byju's spokesperson told, "In this ongoing organisational restructuring for profitable growth, Byju's is making every attempt to offer relevant relocation opportunities to the affected employees. In this regard, while we are discontinuing our Trivandrum operations to reduce redundancy, we are also offering the entire Trivandrum team an opportunity to relocate to Bengaluru."
Last week, a few employees have taken it to social media and posted that the current in-action 170 employees at the Technopark location are being forcefully resigned without any compensation. The company disputed the claim and told that the employees have been offered extended health insurance benefits, outplacement services, garden leave and relocation to the Bengaluru facility has been given as an option, additionally.
"We have provided them with more than a month's time to decide on this matter. If they choose to not use this opportunity, we have made available a generous and progressive exit package to all employees impacted by the restructuring, including extended health insurance benefits, outplacement services and garden leave. This package even includes an assured opportunity to be rehired by BYJU'S within the next 12 months at any operational centre across India," Byju's spokesperson claimed.
Thereafter, Byju's employees approached and seek support from Prathidhwani, a welfare organisation of techies. On October 25, 2022, employees who were working in the branch met state Labour Minister V Sivankutty seeking his intervention on halted compensation and pending salaries.
"At Techno Park, Thiruvananthapuram, the employees of Byju's App had come to meet me along with the officials of Praddhvani, an IT employees welfare organisation at Technopark. The employees have many grievances including job loss. The labour department will conduct a serious investigation in this regard," Kerala Labour Minister V Sivankutty writes in his social media post in Kannada.
Byju's recently raised $250 million in a fresh funding round from their existing investors including Qatar Investment Authority (QIA). The company said in a press statement that Byjus aims to achieve group-level profitability by March 2023 with a three-pronged approach.
The company also laid off 2,500 employees across all the roles. It also declared to make its K10 subsidiaries work under one umbrella and let Akash, Great Learning work as a standalone entity.
