Satyam fires over 100

By SANGEETHA KANDAVEL
Chennai
Nov. 4: It was a flurry of pink slips at IT major Satyam Computers on Tuesday when it axed over 100 employees from its rolls in Chennai.

According to the employees, they received a call from the human resource (HR) department on Monday asking them to meet HR managers who informed them that they were being fired.

"There was no intimation and the company officials didn't even bother to listen to us when we asked for an explanation," said Vasanth (name changed) who has been with Satyam for over two years. Apparently the US recession cost them their jobs, he said.

"They gave us a letter which said our services had been terminated. We approached the company officials to provide us the option of voluntary resignation. Then we were given relieving letters," lamented another employee, on condition of anonymity. He also said that they were not given any compensation.

When contacted, Mr S.V. Krishnan, HR head, Satyam Computers, ruled out any move to retrench employees due to the economic slowdown. He said the company had a rating policy wherein bottom performers were asked to leave. "We concluded our appraisal process a few weeks back. The employees might have left voluntarily or due to bad performance," he said.

He noted that Satyam has been consistently adding more employees to its rolls. "There is growth, but at a slow pace," he said. Employees from the company said more layoffs are expected in the next two weeks.

Analysts say that this is becoming a steady downpour. Earlier this year, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) had given pink slips to 500 non-performers, while Hexaware and IBM axed 300 and 800 employees respectively, citing non-performance. Similarly, companies such as Virtusa, Patni Computer Systems and Ramco Systems had also trimmed their workforce using the bad performance alibi, the analysts noted.

Announcing Satyam's quarterly results in October, chairman Ramalinga Raju had ruled out any retrenchment due to the current economic slowdown.

He said the company has been consistently adding associates on its rolls.