Amazon Layoffs: Labour Ministry Summons Ecommerce Giant

Following a complaint by employee union Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES) on layoffs by Amazon in India, the Labour Ministry has summoned an official of the ecommerce giant in Bengaluru on Wednesday.

“You are…requested to attend this office with all relevant records in the matter either personally or through an authorized representative on the aforesaid date and time without fail,” a letter from the Labour Ministry, addressed to Amazon’s senior manager for public policy Smitha Sharma, said.

Inc42 has seen the letter signed by A. Anjanappa, Deputy Chief Labour Commissioner in Bengaluru.

Amazon India was not immediately available to respond to Inc42’s query on the same.

In a letter addressed to the Union Labour Minister Bhupender Yadav last week, the union for IT/ITeS employees, said it had received complaints from Amazon employees in India about being forced to quit the company voluntarily. It accused Amazon of violating the country’s labour laws.

The ministry has also called NITES president for the hearing.

As per NITES, Amazon also sent a detailed Voluntary Separation Program (VSP) to its employees, which has made the livelihood of hundreds of its employees and their families vulnerable.

Amazon recently decided to cut 10,000 jobs in corporate and technology verticals globally. With India accounting for about 7% of the company’s total headcount of over 1.5 Mn, the layoffs exercise is expected to impact hundreds of its employees in the country.

The number of Amazon employees in India that will be impacted by the layoff exercise is not clear yet. Last week, Inc42 reported that days before the announcement of the layoffs, top Amazon executives told the India team that the country is a “high priority” market for the ecommerce giant. They also said that more investments can be expected in the country.

The global macroeconomic situation and fears of an impending recession have led to big tech companies, including Meta and Twitter, laying off thousands of employees globally. This has also impacted hundreds of Indian employees. After taking over Twitter, Elon Musk laid off over 90% of its India staff.

The Indian startup ecosystem has also been hit by funding crunch in 2022, with many of the startups resorting to layoffs to cut their costs and increase runway. As per Inc42’s layoff tracker, Indian startups have laid off over 15,000 employees in 2022 so far.