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Kerala govt to meet Byju's officials over layoffs at edtech platform: Report
The meeting comes a day after the company founder Byju Raveendran apologised to his employees for the layoffs. In a message to the employees, he said the company was forced to focus on ‘sustainability and capital-efficient growth’ because of adverse macroeconomic factors.
The Kerala government on Wednesday will meet the officials of Edtech platform Byju's over the ‘forced resignations’ of 170 employees. The Kerala government's labour department had scheduled a meeting on October 25, but the company officials did not attend citing short notice, Livemint reported.
The company is firing 2,500 employees or five per cent of the total strength. According to the report, some laid off Byju's employees had approached Kerala's labour commissioner K Vasuki claiming that a verbal request for a forced resignation had been made by the Edtech giant.
The company offered them to relocate to either Kochi or Bengaluru to cut expense and restructure for ‘profitable growth’.
The meeting comes a day after the company founder Byju Raveendran apologised to his employees for the layoffs. In a message to the employees, he said the company was forced to focus on ‘sustainability and capital-efficient growth’ because of adverse macroeconomic factors.
In his letter to the employees, Ravindran wrote that the company is working hard towards achieving profitability at the group level in the current financial year. Pointing to ‘inefficiencies’ in the rapid and inorganic growth, the founder said there was a need to rationalise the process, PTI reported.
“I am truly sorry to those who will have to leave Byju's", he had said, seeking forgiveness if the process is not as smooth as the company intended to be.
Last month, Byju's had announced its decision of laying off 2,500 employees over six months to reduce ‘redundancies’, consolidating its subsidiaries into one India business and focusing on sustainable growth and profitability.
Raveendran had explained that the company had scaled up quickly and massively across the world in the last four years. Stating that adverse macroeconomic factors changed the business landscape, Raveendran said the tech companies across the world were forced to focus on sustainability and capital-efficient growth.
(With PTI input)
