Amazon India Is Forcing Employees To Quit? Employee Union NITES Writes To Labour Ministry

Amazon in India is undergoing similar trouble as Elon Musk’s new Twitter implodes.

What happens to the employees?

Employee union Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES)  has expressed this in a letter to Union Labour Minister Bhupender Yadav.

NITES Letter said employees have been sent details of a Voluntary Separation Program, and the livelihood of employees and their families is at stake.

Penned by NITES President Harpreet Singh Saluja, the company has given a deadline to the employees until November 30 to complete this process.

Employees Impacted, Again?

“A lay-off is a condition where the employers are constrained to deny work to their workforce owing to conditions that bring forth temporary inability to keep their business going which is clearly not scenario in Amazon’s case (sic),” the letter reads.2

as per the Industrial Dispute Act, the employer cannot lay off an employee without prior permission from the government, and a copy of the application has to be given to the concerned workmen as well. 

Additionally, it states a worker who has worked for at least a year continuously cannot be retrenched unless they are also served a notice three months in advance

The letter adds that Amazon has violated labour laws in the country.

New world order 

Reports stated that up to 10,000 jobs are likely to be eliminated in this round of layoffs at Amazon

Reuters has it that this would be a 3 percent reduction of Amazon’s workforce.

“Yesterday, we communicated the difficult decision to eliminate a number of positions across our Devices and Books businesses, and also announced a voluntary reduction offer for some employees in our People, Experience, and Technology (PXT) organization,” Amazon Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy’s read

Relentless layoffs

He went on with his audacity to say that layoffs will continue into 2023, according to a Reuters report.

Amazon hasn’t concluded exactly how many other roles will be impacted, but employees will be informed first.

Amazon’s layoffs came after other Big Tech companies such as Twitter and Meta also announced significant headcount reductions. While Twitter laid off 50 percent of its workforce after Elon Musk acquired the company with more terminations since, Meta laid off 13 percent — or 11,000 people — from its workforce.