After Kerala Govt’s Intervention, BYJU’S Revokes Plans To Shut Trivandrum Office

In a big win for employees, edtech major BYJU’S has backed out of plans to shut its Trivandrum office.

This comes right after the edtech major’s chief executive officer (CEO) Byju Raveendran met Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan over the matter. The hectic parleys also saw BYJU’S vice president Sri Jayadev meeting state labour department officials to apprise local authorities of their stance. 

“Following a detailed discussion between the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Kerala, Shri P. Vijayan, and Byju Raveendran, Founder of BYJU’S, we have decided to continue operations of our TVM product development centre. As a result, our 140 associates will continue to operate from this centre,” a BYJU’S spokesperson was quoted as saying. 

The move was also confirmed by Kerala Labour Department in a Facebook post as well as by employee welfare organisation, Prathidhwani. 

This comes barely a week after the edtech giant said that it was shutting down its Trivandrum office as part of an ongoing restructuring exercise. The aftermath saw employees alleging that BYJU’S was forcing more than 170 staffers to resign. On the other hand, the decacorn claimed that it was offering the aggrieved employees a month’s time to relocate to Bengaluru. 

This also came as the Labour Minister publicly said that the state government would launch a probe against BYJU’S in the matter. The Labor Commissioner, thereafter, called a meeting of both the parties and sought resolution of the matter. 

As part of the truce, Prathidhwani said that BYJU’S media development centre will continue to operate out of Trivandrum. Additionally, BYJU’S will also welcome back all employees who were asked to resign last month and there will be ‘no retaliation’ against the protesting employees. 

The meeting also saw senior officials, including the Labour Commissioner, present at the meeting. 

Layoffs Amid Surge In Loss

This is the first instance where BYJU’S has rolled back its plans to scuttle operations in any state. The other states have not been so lucky. A recent Inc42 report estimated that BYJU’S was looking to wind down operations across close to 60 states, including Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat.

The decacorn has also come under fire for its purported new policy that links the salaries of thousands of its salespersons to the targets achieved. Not just this, reports continue to emerge of employees being forced to relocate to keep their jobs. 

As the fallout intensified, CEO Raveendran, in an internal mail, blamed external macroeconomic conditions and focus on profitability as the reasons behind mass layoffs at the startup. He also said that the decision to terminate the employment of 2,500 workers was taken to protect the health of the larger organisation. 

BYJU’S recently laid off close to 2,500 employees as part of its restructuring bid, which it claims affected just 5% of the total workforce. However, it previously also fired 300 employees at its subsidiary WhitHatJr while laying off another 350+ at Toppr.

It has also been raising money left, right and centre to fuel its operations. Close on the heels of its $250 Mn equity and debt round, it picked up another INR 300 Cr loan from subsidiary Aakash Educational Services

Meanwhile, funding continues to be scarce for the overall edtech ecosystem, even as the edtech decacorn’s loss surged 20X to INR 4,588 Cr in FY21. However, the edtech space continues to see heightened competition as the market size of the burgeoning sector is projected to reach $10.4 Bn by 2025.