Techies’ welfare association meet Kerala minister after Byju’s asks 140 employees to resign

Bengaluru-based Byju’s laying off saga took a new turn on Tuesday. According to a LinkedIn post shared by Technopark Today, a community portal for IT professionals, more than 170 employees of Think & Learn Private Limited, raised their voice after being asked to forcefully resign by the company management.  
  
The post further revealed that the edtech decacorn is planning to stop its operations in the Carnival building of Technopark in Trivandrum. This matter was taken up by Prathidhwani, a welfare organisation of the techies, which met Kerala Labour Minister V Sivankutty, and requested him to intervene in the matter and ensure that it reaches an “amicable and dignified” conclusion. 
  
When Business Today got in touch with Byju's, they claimed the number is 140 and not 170. The spokesperson of the company told BT that the entire Trivandrum staff has been given the option to relocate to the Bangalore office. If they are unable to do so, they will be compensated with 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 center across India,” the spokesperson said.  
  
The meeting, which was held on October 25, saw Prathidhwani also requesting the minister to urge the company to not force resignation on the employees and revise the exit policy of the employees. 
  
The demands with respect to the exit policy include payment of employees’ October 2022 salary on November 1, 2022, one-time settlement salary for three months (November 2022-January 2023), encashment of all earned leaves, and full-settlement of the variable pay.  
  
“Honorable minister Sri V Sivankutty assured that Labour Dept. will intervene into the same. Byju's App employees and Prathidhwani representatives were present during the discussion with the minister,” the post read.  
  

On October 12, Byju’s announced that it is laying off 2,500 employees from its total workforce. The spokesperson of the company told Business Today that the layoffs “will not happen immediately”, but will taken over “the period of next six months.”  
  
On the other hand, the company is also planning to hire 10,000 more teachers in the coming year and take the total number of teachers to 30,000. These steps are being taken to become profitable in FY23, and avoid redundancies and duplication of roles, the company said in a statement.