Edtech decacorn Byju’s on Wednesday reverted its decision to shut down its office in Technopark in Trivandrum and hire back the employees who were laid off.
“Following a detailed discussion between Kerala chief minister, P Vijayan and Byju Raveendran, we have decided to continue operations of our TVM product development centre. As a result, our 140 associates will continue to operate from this centre,” Byju’s said in a statement.
The reversal comes after Byju’s employees approached V Sivankutty, Kerala’s minister for general education and labour last week, after the Bengaluru- headquartered company asked its all employees to resign without any prior information saying it is winding down the operations in the particular office. The company, last valued at $22 billion, is cutting costs, laying off at least 2500 employees amidst a company-wide restructuring.
On Wednesday, after meeting with labour commissioner Dr Vasuki IAS and Prathidhwani representatives on Wednesday, Byju’s took back its decision. Prathidhwani is a welfare organisation for Information technology workers, who was representing impacted Byju’s employees.
In the meeting, Byju’s assured it will continue the operations at Technopark-based Media Development centre, Vineeth Chandran, secretary, Prathidhwani, said.
“All the employees can continue working. The management agreed that they will take back employees, who had forcefully resigned,” Chandran said.
Byju’s will not take any disciplinary action as retaliation towards the employees, he added.
The company will share the details on the decisions taken in the meeting over email, assuring them the office would not be shut down for a certain period.
Earlier this week, Raveendran wrote to employees seeking forgiveness.
“I realize that there is a huge price to pay for walking on this path to profitability. We are having to part ways with 2,500 of our colleagues. I am truly sorry to those who will have to leave Byju's,” Raveendran had said in an email to employees.
The Bengaluru-based unicorn has been facing backlash on social media from employees who have been laid off in the last couple of weeks as it aims to be profitable by the end of financial year. The company had denied media reports that claimed that the job cuts are more than 2,500.
Last week, Byju’s raised Rs 300 crore via a collateral-free loan from its wholly-owned subsidiary Aakash Educational Services. It said it is an advance against the marketing activities and campaigns the unicorn has been running for Aakash.
Earlier this month, the company had also raised $250 million in a rights issue from existing investors at a $22 billion valuation.
