Former Employees Ask BYJU’S To Pay INR 2.3 Cr Salary Dues Or Face Insolvency Proceedings

In a fresh trouble for embattled edtech firm BYJU’S, 62 former employees have now joined hands and sent a notice to initiate an insolvency and bankruptcy case against the company if it doesn’t pay their salary dues. 

Bengaluru-based law firm Canvas Legal has issued the demand notice of over INR 2.3 Cr to BYJU’S on behalf of the employees.

Ankur Tripathi, partner at Canvas Legal, told Inc42, “We have sent a Section 8 notice to BYJU’S on behalf of these employees making a claim that is cumulatively above INR 2.3 Cr. We are expecting a reply from BYJU’S. We have given them 10 days time as per the IBC (Insolvency And Bankruptcy Code). If BYJU’S fails to respond, we are all set to go to the NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal) with an insolvency petition.”

A copy of the notice, sent on July 4 and accessed by Inc42, read, “The undersigned request you to unconditionally repay the unpaid operational debt (in default) in full within 10 days from the receipt of this letter, failing which we shall initiate corporate insolvency resolution process in respect of M/s Think & Learn Pvt Ltd (Byju’s parent).” 

Around 1,500 former employees of BYJU’S have joined hands to fight against the company, demanding their dues. However, everyone couldn’t join to send the legal notice to the company due to certain monetary constraints, a source informed Inc42.

Business Standard was the first to report the development. 

The development comes days after Karnataka Labour Minister Santosh Lad asked BYJU’S to settle the overdue salaries of at least 50% of its former employees “at the earliest”.

Karnataka’s labour department has received hoards of complaints from about 160-200 former BYJU’S employees who have alleged that the edtech firm has not settled dues worth nearly INR 4.5 Cr owed to them, even months after their termination.

Meanwhile, the NCLT has also asked the edtech startup to pay salaries to its employees, irrespective of whether it has access to the funds raised via its rights issue or not. 

The Karnataka High Court on the other hand has lifted the NCLT’s restriction on BYJU’S from undertaking a second rights issue, which came as a major relief to the cash-starved startup.

Meanwhile, BYJU’S is yet to pay the complete salaries of its employees for the months of February and March. 

The latest development adds to the long list of troubles that the embattled startup is facing. While some of its investors have taken the legal route to stop the company’s rights issue, it is also facing insolvency pleas from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), OPPO, among others. 

Besides, it is also dealing with issues like mounting losses, delays in filing financial statements, layoffs, allegations of hiding funds, and probes by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA).

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