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Byjus fires employees over phone with no notice period
The beleaguered edtech company Byju’s has started its latest round of lay-offs via telephone calls. Sacked employees don’t have to serve a notice period and neither do they get a chance to undergo Performance Improvement Plan (PIP).
The current round of sacking could affect up to 500 employees, and is being said to be an outcome of a business restructuring exercise that was announced in October last year. The latest layoffs see the phone call being followed by an official email to the sacked employee from Byju’s HR Compliance department. The email outlines details of the employee’s last working day, and informs them that full and final settlement would be done in accordance with the exit policy, after the employee has handed back all assets and proprietary information of the company.
10,000 sacked in last two years
The edtech company is estimated to have let go more than 10,000 employees over the last two years and the current spate of layoffs, which started a couple of weeks ago, will mainly impact sales function departments, sources said.
The company’s diminishing fortunes are an outcome of a severe cash crunch. The business restructuring exercise was meant to “simplify operating structures, reduce the cost base, and better cash flow management”, a company spokesperson informed the website Moneycontrol.
The current layoffs follows Byju’s postponing March salaries of its staff as the company waits for a go-ahead to use funds from a rights issue to pay its employees. A portion of the February 2024 salaries were paid in March, while the staff is yet to get the balance amount of February. The HR department of the company has reportedly given verbal assurance to some of the sacked employees that all pending dues would be cleared by April 5.
Trouble for the edtech company started with frequent showdowns with stakeholders including board members and investors, besides institutions such as Enforcement Directorate, Board of Control for Cricket in India and Employees Provident Fund Organisation.