BENGALURU: Amid a funding crisis and a series of legal battles, troubled edtech firm Byju’s has fired 500 employees, including teachers. Currently, the company has nearly 13,000 employees.
Sources and a few employees that this newspaper spoke to confirmed the layoff and said staff across sales, marketing and tuition centres got laid off. While some employees received emails about the termination, others were fired over phone calls.
An employee with Byju’s said the company has been asking online teachers to move offline and teach at the company’s tuition centres and those who couldn’t do that are now being fired. “An online teacher in Odisha is being asked to move to an offline tuition centre in Rajasthan. Since it is not possible, many are resigning and some are also being fired,” another employee claimed.
A teacher with Byju’s earns anywhere between `4 lakh and `8 lakh, according to their experience. Initially, the firm hired teachers with attractive pay and allowance packages.
Recently the edtech firm said that 90% of its tuition centres- 262 out of 292 will continue to function in the hybrid model and the rest will undergo restructuring. When asked about layoffs, Byju’s spokesperson said, “We are in the final stages of a business restructuring exercise announced in October 2023 to simplify operating structures, reduce the cost base, and better cash flow management.”
The spokesperson added that the company is going through an extraordinary situation because of the ongoing litigation with four foreign investors, where every employee and the ecosystem is going through tremendous stress, given the present circumstances.
“We regret the unfortunate situation the firm has been forced into. Still, it is something that we will put behind us soon with majority investor support for the $200 million rights issue. We request everyone’s understanding of the individual and collective stress on the system, which might be prompting some unforeseen situations for the departing employees,” the spokesperson added.