If it is difficult to start a business in India, it is even more difficult to stop it.
The Kerala Manpower Minister has said the state government will carry out a “serious investigation” into the closure of Byju’s office in Thiruvananthapuram. 170 employees from the Byju Technopark office have met with the Ministry of Manpower alleging that they were forced to resign, and are demanding their compensation and pending salaries.
“At Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram, Byju app employees came to see me along with officials of Prathidhwani, the IT employee welfare organization at Technopark,” Kerala’s minister of public education and labor V Sivankutty wrote on Facebook. “Employees have many complaints including job loss. The labor department will conduct a serious investigation into this matter,” he added.
Technopark Today, Technopark’s employee community media platform, accused Byju’s management of forcing employees to resign. Reports show that employees are demanding “payment of salaries for October 2022 by November 1, 2022, a one-time payment of salary for the next three months, from November 2022 to January 31, 2023, as well as disbursement of the earned leave and full settlement. variable payments (as applicable to each employee) from management.”
Two weeks ago, Byju’s announced it would lay off 2,500 employees. Byju’s had said that the layoffs would help the company before making a profit in the next six months. “As a mature organization that takes our investors and stakeholders seriously, we aim to ensure sustainable growth alongside strong revenue growth. These measures will help us achieve profitability within the stipulated time frame of March 2023,” Byju said of the layoffs.
But employees at his office in Thiruvananthapuram seem less interested in the idea, and have now approached the Ministry of Manpower in protest. Kerala is the only state in India that has a Communist government, and it is more receptive to issues like this than usual. Interestingly, the founder of Byju, Byju Raveendran is himself from Kerala, but has chosen to leave the state and set up the headquarters of Byjus in Karnataka. And with Kerala’s Ministry of Manpower launching a “serious investigation” into Byju’s office shutdown, the company – which has been battling allegations of questionable business practices, attacks by sitting Members of Parliament, oversight of its finances, and large-scale layoffs – may yet be another issue that must be addressed. faced.
