Byju's Employees Meet Kerala Minister After Company Allegedly Forces 170 To Resign

Byju's¡ª India's most-valued startup, is making headlines yet again. On October 25, several Byju's employees met with Kerala labor minister V Sivankutty, claiming that the Edtech giant was pressuring more than 170 staff members to quit as it contemplated terminating operations in Thiruvananthapuram.

BYJU'S

According to a LinkedIn post by TechnoparkToday, a community digital media platform for IT workers, Byju's, which has an office in the Carnival building of Technopark, is planning to leave the state capital.

Byju Raveendran, co-founder and CEO is a native of Kerala's little coastal village of Azhikode.

The Technopark office employed more than 170 people. The post claimed that management was pushing workers into resigning. A charity organization for techies called Prathidhwani was approached by workers requesting assistance.

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According to Byju's, 140 employees were affected by the restructuring.

Prathidhwani asked Sivankutty to intervene and help workers reach an "amicable" and "dignified" resolution with the company. Members of Prathidhwani reported that the minister has agreed to step in and assist the staff. The workers have two choices.

They were told to resign, and if they didn't, their contracts would be terminated, according to Vineeth Chandran, Prathidhwani's secretary, who went to the meeting on October 25 and discussed it with Moneycontrol.

"Employees were told if their contracts were terminated, their future employment prospects would take a hit as it doesn't look good on one's Resume. So some resigned, some still haven't."

Senior management from Byju wasn't involved in the meeting. As no one was accessible in town due to the holidays, the company asked the minister by email to hold an appointment the subsequent week.

"So there will be a meeting next Monday (October 31), and a solution is likely possible then," Chandran added.

He claimed that Prathidhwani and the affected workers had asked the minister to tell Byju's not to demand a forced resignation. The workers seek payment of their October salary on November 1.

Prathidhwani members also expect a complete settlement of variable pay, encashment of earned leave, and a one-time salary payment for the next three months (from November 2022 to January 31, 2023).

Chandran said the other demands would be discussed later as no one from Byju's management attended the meeting.

Fortune

According to Byju's, the company is suspending operations in Thiruvananthapuram as part of an ongoing organizational restructuring initiative.

"We also offer the entire Trivandrum team an opportunity to relocate to Bengaluru. We have provided them more than a month to decide on this matter," said a spokesperson for Byju's.

"If they choose not to use this opportunity, we have made a generous and progressive exit package available to all employees impacted by the restructuring, including extended health insurance benefits, outplacement services, and garden leave. This package even includes an assured opportunity to be re-hired by Byju's within the next 12 months at any operational center across India," the spokesperson added.

In a Facebook post on the evening of October 25, Sivankutty mentioned, "the employees of Byju¡¯s app from Technopark Thiruvananthapuram had come to see me. The employees have many grievances, including job loss. The Labour Department will conduct a serious investigation in this regard."

However, the allegation of forced resignations was made just a few weeks after the company announced it would terminate close to 2,500 workers, or 5% of its workforce, to reduce costs to attain company-level profitability by March 2023.

It is still unknown if the 170 workers are a part of the October 12th-announced layoffs.

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