Govt Will Investigate Amazon India Over Mass Resignations: Why Employees Are Quitting Amazon?

Amidst the fear of economic meltdown, the labor ministry is planning to set up an inquiry to find out whether the recent spate of resignations at Amazon India constituted layoffs that violate labor laws or terms of service, as per the sources.

Labor Ministry Sent Notice To Amazon India

Regarding the same, the ministry had sent a notice to Amazon India last week after receiving a complaint of mass layoffs in violation of laws made to labor minister Bhupender Yadav by the Nascent Information Technology Employees’ Senate (NITES).

Here NITES is a collective of IT professionals that has over 18,000 members.

According to the Amazon India management, no employee had been fired and some staff had resigned after accepting the e-commerce firm’s “voluntary separation programme” in its reply.

 In its internal communication to employees, the ecommerce giant  had stated that those who do not opt for the voluntary separation programme will be retrenched without any benefits under a “workforce optimisation programme”, said Harpreet Singh Saluja, president of NITES, which has alleged violation of labor laws.

How Did This Happen?

It appears that the online shopping platform has planned to lay off approximately 10,000 people in corporate and technology jobs globally, starting last week.

This would be the largest job cuts in the company’s history, as per the reports. 

Basically, the mass resignations at Amazon India are being interpreted as a part of the e-commerce giant’s global retrenchments.

In its defense, the Ecommerce platform has said it planned to shut down its food delivery service in Bengaluru by the end of 2022.

Affected Ed-tech Ventures

Amazon India also plans to wind up its ed-tech ventures in the country. 

Confirming the same, the company said it would shutter Amazon Academy, an online learning platform in India for high school students, on Thursday.

Justifying the same, “ Amazon said that they had expected to make more money through their business, but owing to financial expedience, they floated a voluntary exit programme. They said there were no forced layoffs. However, we will be examining whether the exits were voluntary and if the terms of services, which includes severance and notice period, were adhered to,” in its response to the labor ministry, sources said.

Further, the ministry also plans to reach out to the employees who opted for the voluntary exit scheme to verify the claims made by the company.

On the subject of the government intervening in the working of a private entity, the official noted that the ministry has the mandate to ensure that labor laws were not violated. 

Adding, “We will ensure that the aggrieved workers are heard, and their rights are protected. Otherwise, we will act as per the law,”.