Life after layoff

layoff, Job cut, pink slip

Layoff is a dirty word in India. From the time popular outrage forced Jet Airways to retract its mid-October decision to sack 1,900 employees, few firms in India have announced such a move. But people are losing jobs. Just that the companies concerned have stopped making declarations.

No lay off just stay off!

The official position of most firms is that there is a freeze on hiring, but there won't be layoffs. Yet, people are getting fired on various grounds. Countrywide data on the precise number of firings has not yet been compiled by any agency, but experts estimate that the figure runs into tens of thousands in the formal sector. But what about the workers on the periphery of organisations – the peons, cleaners, drivers, and security men?

"Companies are laying people off in phases. They are doing this quietly and are blaming it on everything but the downturn," says Narender Reddy, a Hyderabad-based HR consultant. "The number of dismissals could be between 500 and 1,000 in Hyderabad alone."

Ford to increase headcount

Though most of the job cuts are downturn-induced, the companies are citing any number of reasons to individual employees, many of them flimsy. Take the instance of Venkatesh* who was with a Hyderabad-based financial processing MNC. Venkatesh used to take leave every now and then to take his ailing mother to hospital. His colleagues and superiors were accommodating. But in the midst of the downturn, Venkatesh's leaves suddenly became inexcusable. He was dismissed.

"I feel as if they took advantage of my situation to make their staff cut," says Venkatesh. "I don't know what to do. The market is so tight that I am unlikely to get a job any time soon."

'Textile cos may cut 5 lakh more jobs'

Even performers haven't been spared. When Surendar Agarwal* joined L&T InfoTech in Bangalore, he never imagined that someone as driven and competent as him could ever get a pink slip. Last year, he got a "best performer" award, something he says he always deserved. Last month, he was shown the door. "I couldn't fathom what hit me," says Agarwal. "I am in a mess. I have a loan of Rs 2,00,000 and don't know how I'll repay it."

Agarwal, with a retired father, mother, wife, two children, and a brother to take care of, has been hunting for a job, but, ironically, his experience is coming in the way. "I have nine years in the profession, but nobody is ready to hire me," he says. "Everybody prefers a fresher who can be hired at a low salary."

Associated Press to cut 10% jobs

Agarwal is at his wit's end. "I cannot even afford to pay our monthly insurance premium of Rs 5,500 anymore."

Life is toughest for those at the bottom of the employment pyramid. Vikram Lokhande, a contract labourer, is clueless about running his household. The breadwinner in his family, Lokhande, 28, works at a small engineering unit in Pune. "We have a two-year-old daughter and my wife is expecting. And here I am, jobless," he says.

Bank of New York Mellon to cut 1,800 jobs

Lokhande used to make over Rs 5,000 a month after doing overtime. Next month, he won't be able to pay even the monthly rent of Rs 1,000 for his single-room house. "We have stopped having curries with our meals. We don't have money to buy vegetables."

In Surat, the diamonds have lost their sparkle for Pashupatinath Jha, a worker from Bihar, who used to polish the stones at a unit till last month. But the lack of demand in the West owing to the downturn has forced several of the city's diamond-cutting units to close down indefinitely. "My money is running out fast," says Jha. "I am on the verge of bankruptcy."

'JPMorgan cuts investment banking jobs'

With inputs from Satish Jha (Surat), Vineeta Pandey (New Delhi), Archana Dahiwal (Pune), Sobia Khan (Bangalore), and KV Ramana (Hyderabad) * Names changed on request

The wild fluctuations of the rupee have added to the woes of manufacturers like Bipin Shah, managing director of Anuh Pharma. “Usually, the rupee value fluctuates by a maximum of 5-6 per cent per annum,” says Shah, whose company serves both the domestic and foreign markets. “But the fluctuation since January has been 29 per cent.” This has ruined his business plans and what worries him further is that there is no indication of which way things will go.

Japan's Isuzu Motors to cut 1,400 jobs

Siddharth Jain worried that he might lose his job with a film-marketing firm when he heard of dire predictions of a recession started his own company in network marketing (which is marketing on an online or mobile network). Now he is ecstatic over his decision as he has gained from the situation: Advertisers whose budgets have been slashed are turning to network marketing.

More India business stories

Sharad Kumar Saraf, MD, Technocraft Industries had expanded his factory’s yarn division prior to the economic gloom. Now he finds that the capacity is excessive. The factory operates only five days a week and daily production is down 30 per cent. Even the rapid depreciation of the rupee has failed to cheer those that depend on exports. When the exchange rate came down to Rs42/dollar, exporters rushed to forward-book sales at that rate. As a result, they have gained nothing though the exchange rate has plunged to Rs 50/dollar.

Under license from www.3dsyndication.com

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