Wipro Starts Firing Employees Globally; 9 Employees From This Country Fired After They Refused To Resign

The Indian IT sector is heading for a downward performance slope, amidst the coronavirus pandemic. Among the companies firing people off in masses, is the Indian IT giant, Wipro.

It has been reported that Wipro has fired 9 employees from its Bangladesh office, where it manages the complete IT landscape of Telenor Group-owned firm Grameenphone.

Wipro Fires People in Bangladesh

Even though the Indian software services exporter is yet to take an action on its retrenchment plans for India, it appears to have already started the exercise in other countries.

These come in account of the hit on the IT giant’s revenues from the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Indian IT giant is known to have laid off nine employees in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh Times, a regional news portal has reported that at least 10 employees were asked to resign and when they refused, Wipro fired them, which clearly is a violation of the terms of the agreement, says the report.

What Do the Retrenched Employees have to Say?

When asked from those 9 laid-off employees, they complained that the company has also been involved in discrimination towards local hires in terms of salaries, bonuses, promotions, provident funds and gratuities.

It fired them without notice. Wipro has denied any such allegation, saying that over 90% of its employees are locals. It also claimed that it will continue to hire locally.

When prompted about the layoffs, the company stated that it was not induced due to the pandemic situation.

Wipro Promises to Cut Costs Wherever Required

A Wipro spokesperson said that the nine employees at the Bangladesh office were laid off due to changes in a customer’s business requirements, which led to realignment of the workforce.

The IT firm has close to 200 employees in Bangladesh.

Wipro stated that it was considering “all options” to keep the costs under control, which would also include sending some of its staff on furloughs, after declaring its fourth-quarter earnings.

Wipro President & Chief Human Resources Organisation Saurabh Govil said, “We will have to cut costs wherever possible. These are tough times and we may have to take tough decisions”.

The company has also formed three task forces that include teams for,

• crisis management and business community,
• gain market share, and
• deal with the human resources Company Social Responsibilities.