BYJU’S Shuts Thiruvananthapuram Ops, Impacted Employees Knock Govt Doors

A week after announcing mass layoffs, edtech giant BYJU’S has now shut down its Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) office as part of an ongoing restructuring exercise. 

To ward off the blowback from the exercise, BYJU’S has offered the aggrieved employees a month’s time relocation ‘opportunities’ to shift their base to Bengaluru. 

“In this ongoing organisational restructuring for profitable growth, BYJU’S is making every attempt to offer relevant relocation opportunities to the affected employees. In this regard, while we are discontinuing our Trivandrum (Thiruvananthapuram) operations to reduce redundancy, we are also offering the entire Trivandrum team an opportunity to relocate to Bengaluru,” a BYJU’S spokesperson told Inc42. 

BYJU’S statement came in response to Kerala’s labour minister V Sivankutty saying that the state government would launch a probe into BYJU’S after some of the employees met Sivankutty and apprised him of their situation. The employees alleged that the edtech giant was forcing more than 170 staffers to resign as it discontinued its operations.

Interestingly, BYJU’S said that the number of employees that would get impacted in the restructuring at Thiruvananthapuram was 140. 

“The employees of Byju’s app from Technopark Thiruvananthapuram had come to see me. The employees have many grievances, including job loss. The Labour Department will conduct a serious investigation in this regard,” wrote the Minister on his Facebook page.

While BYJU’S claims that it has offered relocation opportunities, a local community digital media platform reported that the edtech giant was ‘enforcing employees for forceful resignation.’

The welfare organisation of the techies that took up the case with the Minister called for the Minister’s intervention in devising an exit policy that caters to all demands of the aggrieved persons.

The edtech has claimed that it has offered a ‘generous’ exit package for the employees that will be affected as part of the exercise, including extended health insurance benefits, outplacement services and garden leave. The supposed exit package also includes an ‘opportunity’ to be rehired by BYJU’S within the next 12 months at any operational centre across India.

A Flawed Restructuring?

Last week BYJU’S laid off more than 2,500 employees across verticals including product, content, media, and technology teams to become profitable by the end of the ongoing financial year 2022-23 (FY23).

Prior to that, it had also laid off close to 300 employees at WhiteHat Jr in June and followed it up with an additional 350+ layoffs at Toppr the next day. BYJU’s alone has accounted for more than half (4,000+) of the total 7,000+ layoffs in the edtech space, according to Inc42 layoff tracker.

Even as pressure continues to build on the edtech major to turn a profit, BYJU’S appears to be far cry from it. After much ado last month, the edtech major finally released its financial reports for FY21 which painted a grim picture. While losses soared 20X to INR 4,588 Cr in the period, revenue from operations declined 3.3% to INR INR 2,428.3 Cr in the financial year ended March 2021. 

Amid mounting losses and increasing layoffs, it continues to raise money to fuel its operations. Within two days of announcing layoffs, it raised $250 Mn in equity and debt from existing investors, including Qatar Investment Authority.

This is the first time that the edtech giant has faced resistance from employees that have more or less unionised against the edtech giant. Despite that, it looks highly unlikely to deter the decacorn from cash fueled growth as it looks to stabilise revenues and profits going forward.