BYJU's revokes layoffs in Kerala after CEO meets CM Pinarayi

Edutech company BYJU’s, which is currently laying off 5 per cent of its workforce as part of its restructuring exercise, is unable to make much headway on this front in the state of Kerala.

The company, which is trying to grow in a “sustainable fashion” and “pay heed to the constraints imposed by external macroeconomic condition”, had decided to lay off all of its employees, more than 150 of them, at its centre in Technopark at Thiruvananthapuram. But, the company has done an a complete turnaround and decided to continue the operations at the centre after the company’s CEO and founder, Byju Raveendran met Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

The decision to lay off the employees has been now revoked. In a statement, the edtech giant said, “following a detailed discussion between the Chief Minister of Kerala, P Vijayan and Byju Raveendran, founder of BYJU’S, we have decided to continue operations of our TVM (Thiruvananthapuram) product development centre.” And, as a result, the 140 associates will continue to operate from this centre.

Byju Raveendran, who is from Kerala, reiterated his commitment to the state.

Also read: Byju’s CEO apologises for layoffs; says macroeconomic developments led to job cuts

Employees reach out to labour commissioner and minister

This move also comes in the backdrop of a meeting held between the employees, BYJU’s management, and Prathidhwani, a welfare organisation for IT employees, which was chaired by the labour commissioner K Vasuki.

The company has now promised to take back the employees who have already resigned. Furthermore, BYJU’s also agreed to sign a written agreement that it will continue operations at the Technopark centre for a fixed period to reassure its employees.

Meanwhile, a BYJU’s press release said that the company will “relook” at the restructuring plans and continue its development centre at Technopark, owing to the meeting between the CEO and the CM. Media reports said that Raveendran purportedly told the CM that the  Technopark centre and its staff came to his notice only after the global restructuring plan had been rolled out.

Rude shock

Last week, the 150 employees of BYJU’s Think & Learn Private Limited at Technopark got a rude shock when they were asked to resign. Facing a lot of pressure from higher-ups to quit “willingly,” the employees approached Prathidhwani, who in turn connected them to the labour commissioner and labour minister V Sivankutty.

News reports quoted labour minister Sivankutty as saying that at the technopark, Thiruvananthapuram employees of BYJU’S app had met him with the office bearers of IT employees welfare organisation Echo of Technopark. “Employees have many complaints, including job losses. The Labor Department will conduct a serious inspection in this matter,” he had said.

Also read: BYJU’S raises $250 million in fresh funding amid lay-off blues

Not exiting Kerala

On October 28, BYJU’s had said it won’t exit Kerala but as part of its “ongoing organisational restructuring for profitable growth” it was discontinuing its operations at Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram “to reduce redundancy”.

Also, the company had offered the entire affected team, some 140 members, a relocation opportunity to Bengaluru or a progressive exit package, it said in a statement.

In his apology email, Raveendran had said, “I realise that there is a huge price to pay for walking on this path to profitability. I am truly sorry to those who will have to leave BYJU, it breaks my heart too. I seek your forgiveness if this process is not as smooth as we had intended it to be. While we want to finish this process smoothly and efficiently, we don’t want to rush through it.”

“I want to emphasise that the overall job cuts are not more than five per cent of our total strength,” he said, adding that he does not see this as layoff but as a “time off”.