New Delhi: Silent layoffs claimed over 20,000 jobs in the IT and IT-enabled services sector last year, according to the industry employees’ representative body, the the All India IT & ITeS Employees’ Union (AIITEU). This function has affected companies of all sizes across the industry.
What are silent layoffs
A silent layoff is a practice in which an employee is given a 30-day grace period to find a new job within the same company. If the individual fails to secure a job within this window, s/he is asked to resign and offered 3-4 months’ pay as severance. These layoffs are not new and have been a part of the IT sector’s employee management practice for many years now. Silent layoffs are characterised by the discreet nature of layoffs.
According to the Nascent IT Employees Senate, a representative body of IT employees, between 2,000 and 3,000 professionals have been laid off in 2024. This trend is also prevalent since it allows the employee an opportunity to search for jobs without carrying the tag of having been terminated by their employer, Moneycontrol reported, citing NITES president Harpreet Singh Saluja.
AIITEU general secretary Saubhik Bhattacharya said that in some cases employees were also made to sign non-disclosure agreements as pre-condition for drawing their paycheck in full. Another trend that has picked up is the extension of working hours of existing employees to 14-16 hours, from 10-12 hours, added Bhattacharya.
Which companies conducted silent layoffs
Calling it a structured layoff, Saluja said that companies axe jobs in a phased manner in batches of 10-20 people. This trend was also reflected in the nearly 69,197 employees who were laid off in FY24 so far by the top 5 IT cos:
TCS
Infosys
HCL Tech
Wipro
Tech Mahindra
International IT firms that laid off staff in India under the silent layoff trend include:
Teradata
State Atos Syntel
Accenture Cognizant
Infosys
To be sure, Infosys and Atos Syntel denied the layoffs, the Moneycontrol reported. Accenture, Cognizant and State Street also did not respond to queries, Moneycontrol reported. ItT services companies are highly dependent on people reduction to maintain their margins since they do not have any credible levers beyond this option, Moneycontrol reported, citing Everest Group Technology services research leader Yugal Joshi.
India’s IT sector has been hit by the silent layoffs trend wherein individuals are being urged to tender their resignation after being offered a 30-day grace period to find a job within the same company. These layoffs are done in a structured manner as part of a cost saving exercise, according to industry watchers. Biz News Business News – Personal Finance News, Share Market News, BSE/NSE News, Stock Exchange News Today
