Amazon Layoffs: Employee Union NITES Writes To Labour Minister, Alleges Violation Of Laws

Employee union Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES) has written a letter to the Union Labour Ministry, seeking government’s intervention in the layoffs being conducted by US-based ecommerce giant Amazon in India.

In the letter addressed to Labour Minister Bhupendra Yadav, the union for IT/ITeS employees accused Amazon of violating India’s labour laws.

Amid the ongoing mass layoffs across tech companies worldwide, Amazon has recently started downsizing its headcount globally. The tech giant will reportedly cut 10,000 jobs in corporate and technology verticals. India accounts for about 7% of Amazon’s total headcount of over 1.5 Mn, and the layoffs exercise is likely to impact hundreds of employees across divisions.

In the letter, NITES said that it has received complaints from Amazon employees that they are being forced to quit the company voluntarily. The big tech firm also sent a detailed Voluntary Separation Program (VSP) to its employees. The livelihood of hundreds of employees and their families is now vulnerable, NITES noted.

As per earlier reports, the impacted Amazon employees were given a grace period until November 29 to decide whether they want to resign voluntarily. NITES mentioned that the date is November 30.

“Essentially, a lay-off is a condition where the employers are constrained to deny work to their workforce owing to conditions that bring forth a temporary inability to keep their business going which is clearly not a scenario in Amazon’s case,” said NITES. 

“As per procedures laid down under Industrial Dispute Act the employer cannot, without prior permission from the appropriate government, lay-off an employee featuring on the muster rolls of the establishment,” the petition said, adding that a worker who has served for at least a year of continuous service cannot be retrenched unless served a notice three months in advance and prior permission from the appropriate government.

The application has to be submitted by the employer, along with the reason for the retrenchment, and this is then to be scrutinised by the authority, NITES said. However,  Amazon “clearly violated the existing provisions of Indian labour laws”, the union alleged while seeking “prompt intervention” and “immediate inquiry” by the government.

Amazon reported a lower-than-expected Q3 revenue of $127.1 Bn, which rose 15% year-on-year (YoY). Besides, the company is far from achieving profitability in India.

On Friday, Inc42 reported that days before the announcement of global layoffs, top Amazon executives told its India team that the country is a “high priority” market for the etailer and more investment will trickle in. 

While the number of employees which will be affected by the layoffs in India is not clear, the number is expected to be lower than in Amazon’s offices outside India. Employees from the software development engineering division are likely to face the axe in the country.

It is pertinent to note that amidst a global economic slowdown and fears of a looming recession, tech companies are carrying out restructuring exercises. Thousands of employees across tech giants like Amazon, Meta, and Twitter have been laid off in recent days. 

Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp parent Meta recently fired 13% of the global workforce, impacting over 11,000 employees. Meanwhile, after Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, the microblogging site laid off over 90% of its India staff while halving the total global headcount.