Byju’s Allegedly Forcing Employees To Resign: Report

Byju's, the edtech unicorn, has been accused of forced resignations by a union of IT employees in Bengaluru. The union has alleged that India's reportedly highest valued startup is making its employee “forcefully” resign. This development comes days after the edtech company came under spotlight in Kerala for allegedly forcing some of its employees to resign.

Claiming that the edtech is indulging in "unfair labour practices," the Karnataka State IT/ITeS Employees Union (KITU), is asking the company’s management to “respect the law of the land and reinstate all retrenched employees” with immediate effect.

However, the company has reportedly denied any forceful resignations.

“It is absolutely false that Byju’s is forcing employees to resign. Byju’s is a responsible organisation and follows all law of the land,” the Economic Times quoted a Byju’s spokesperson as saying. He added, “Each of the employees who are affected by the restructuring is being informed individually with the empathy that they deserve and need at this time.”

According to a report by The Hindu BusinessLine, in the last 7-10 days, Byju’s management held one-on-one conversations with hundreds of its employees across verticals such as media, sales operations, customer retention and recruitment. Out of the 475 members of the quality and analytical team, about 300 were reportedly asked to resign. The recruitment team also underwent similar layoffs, with 300 of the team's 400 members being asked to resign.

The Kerala government launched an investigation into Byju's labour practices last week in response to claims that the company is closing its Technopark office in Thiruvananthapuram and forcing its employees to resign.

However, the spokesperson stated that the reports around Byju’s operations in Kerala are far from reality and that the company will add three more offices in the state in this financial year, taking the total number to 14 and increasing the number of employees in Kerala from 3,000 to nearly 3,600.

As part of company's plan to "grow profitably and sustainably" by March 2023, it will lay off around 5% (2,500 employees) of its 50,000-person staff, as per a report.