Maharashtra Labour Ministry Sends Notice To Amazon Amid Global Layoffs

The Maharashtra Labour Ministry has issued a notice to the India unit of the ecommerce giant Amazon after several media reports noted that the ongoing global layoffs at Amazon might impact around 1,000 employees in India.

Per the notice issued by the Pune office of Maharashtra’s labour ministry, Amazon India representatives have been summoned to Pune to appear before CS Shinde, assistant labour commissioner, on January 17 at 3 PM. Inc42 has reviewed the notice signed by the commissioner.

The move comes after the National Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES) reached out to Maharashtra and Central governments about Amazon’s Voluntary Separation Programme (VSP) and the layoffs at the ecommerce major.

Speaking with Inc42, Harpreet Singh Saluja, NITES general secretary, noted that Amazon had given little to no notice for NITES to appear in a meeting being held in Bengaluru after the Central government took cognisance of the matter. 

Therefore, the employee organisation petitioned the Maharashtra Labour Ministry to shift the meeting venue to Pune as Amazon also has an office in the city as well.

“It is pertinent to note 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,” said Saluja. He further said, “We will continue to fight for the rights of aggrieved employees who were unethically forced to opt for Voluntary Separation Policy and were laid off illegally.”

It is prudent to note that in an earlier meeting with the Union Labour Ministry, Amazon denied firing anyone, stating that all the employees that were leaving the organisation were doing so under the separation policy.

Amid an organisational restructuring that is taking place at Amazon India, the employees which have redundant roles or have had their roles eliminated due to the rejig are being asked to either join other verticals or take the separation route with a severance package. Amazon India has already shut down its edtech vertical, Amazon Academy.

Per an internal memo sent by Amazon India’s leadership team to various employees, the VSP package includes a lump sum severance payment equivalent to the base pay of 22 weeks, a one-week base salary for every six months of service (up to a maximum benefit of 20 weeks paid severance), medical insurance coverage for six months and a notice period or pay in lieu.

The notice from the labour ministry also comes after the ecommerce major announced it would be firing 18,000 employees globally due to adverse global macroeconomic conditions. 

Amazon might fire around 1,000 employees in India, with company insiders telling Inc42 that people in HR, tech and Prime verticals at the ecommerce major would likely be in the line of fire. Again, it is prudent to mention here that Amazon is not firing employees; sources told Inc42 earlier that the outgoing employees are taking up the VSP route.

“Mainly software development engineers have started resigning under VSP. The management has also merged various tech teams after several roles were eliminated in Gurgaon and Bengaluru offices,” one of the sources said.

Amazon’s retrenchment exercise is said to impact 1% of the 100K employees the ecommerce giant has in India.