Automation Effect: Infosys ‘Releases’ 11,000 Employees; Tata Motors To Fire 1500 Mid-Level Managers

As the first quarter of 2017 is about to end, the industry is once again facing the sting of pink slips and mass-firings, all around.

And not surprisingly, automation, technology and robots are being attributed as the source now, that too officially.

But, there is a silver lining as well, in this macabre of jobs and employment: there are some Western financial institutions which are sending the job back again to India.

But, will it be enough?

Infosys ‘Releases’ 11,000 Employees Due to Automation

For Infosys, it seems that employees have become yet another version of a product release.

During their 36th Annual General Meeting in Bangalore on Saturday, the shareholders were informed that the company has ‘released’ 11,000 employees due to automation, in the last one year.

The statement, which we found to be pretty cold and emotionless, said, “It is a clear demonstration of how software is going to play a crucial role in our business model..”

In January this year, Infosys had ‘released’ 9000 jobs, due to automation alone.

As per the information shared with shareholders, Revenue per full-time employee (FTE) has actually increased by 1.2%, due to such mass level terminations, and powered by automation, better utilisation of existing manpower and productivity improvements.

Besides, Infosys chairman R. Seshasayee said that the company is looking forward to returning Rs 13,000 crore to shareholders, via a suitable ‘distribution mechanism’.

As of now, during the end of March quarter in 2017, the company had Rs 12,222 crore in cash, which is almost 50% less compared to Rs 24, 276 crore cash which the company had last year, during the same period.

Interestingly, besides the ‘release’ of 11,000 employees, the General Meeting of shareholders didn’t share much about the fate of employees, in the coming days.

Tata Motors Terminates 1500 Employees

Meanwhile, the effect of terminations and job cut hasn’t spared even Tata.

Tata Motors has announced that around 1500 mid-level managers, part of their ‘white collar workforce’, will face terminations in the coming days.

The company has assured that this is not a big deal, as this ‘restructuring’ was part of a process, which started last year. As per Tata, 10-12% of 13,000 white-collar workforce will be terminated.

Tata Managing Director and Chief Executive Guenter Butschek said, “The reference (total managers) on which we started (the exercise) was in the vicinity of 13,000… we do see as far as the white collar population is concerned, an overall reduction in the vicinity of 10-12 percent (up to 1,500),”

The only silver lining related to job news is that Royal Bank of Scotland has decided to move around 440 jobs to India, as expenses are rising in their country, and outsourcing to India seems the only way out.

A bank statement said, “As we become a simpler, smaller bank, we are making some changes to the way we serve our customers. Unfortunately, these changes will result in the net reduction of 443 roles in the UK “

We will keep you updated as we receive more news related to jobs and pink slips.

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