Will Satyam lay off 8,000 non-IT staff from June?

Satyam Computer is likely to sack most of its non-billable staff of up to 8,000 working in marketing, HR and administration wings,after Tech Mahindra takes charge of the company from June 1.

A Satyam official said there is no doubt that there will be large-scale sacking mostly of the support and non-billable staff (other than hardcore software engineers) once Tech Mahindra (the new owner of the company) directors come on board from June 1.

The surplus staff is about 10,000-12,000 and the 'least painful' ways of sacking is asking the bench, non-billable and support staff to go.

The company spokesperson, when contacted, said that at the moment these are mere speculations.

Sources also said the outsourcer may opt for "virtual pool" sacking method whereby the company would ask some of the staff to take 75 per cent of its salary and take one-year off and look for a job elsewhere with the fragile assurance that they would be recalled, if required.

Tech Mahindra CEO Vineet Nayyar, who will also come on board of Satyam from June after it acquired fraud hit company last month, had said last week that Satyam has about 10,000 surplus staff and "we are looking at the least painful ways to tackle the problem."

Satyam has already called back most of its onsite staff to avoid further costs and most of them may be asked to quit, said the official.

About 3,000 people are on the bench and there is a surplus manpower even in the R&D and engineering units, sources said.

Dwindling revenues are the primary reasons for Tech Mahindra to opt for such a cost-cutting measure, Tech Mahindra official said.

Kiran Karnik, chairman of Government-appointed board of Satyam, said revenues are falling and cost-cutting measures have to be taken up. But he had ruled out lay-offs.

Agencies

Wipro, HCL unlikely to make any campus offers this fiscal

To save on the cost of training, one of the leading domestic software exporter HCL Technologies said it will hire people 'just in time' of requirement rather than maintaining a bench.

HCL has been following the policy of just in time hiring, which has paid off well for the organisation, HCL Technologies CEO Vineet Nayyar said.

Declining to give a hiring outlook for the year ahead, Nayyar said the firm is unlikely to make campus offers.

"We have hardly made any campus offers... we have moved to the lateral strategy," he added.

Similarly, Suresh Senapaty, CFO of Wipro Ltd said the company will not hold any campus interviews this fiscal but will honour all the commitments made to 7000 fresh graduates last fiscal.

The overall global headcount of the company fell by 992, to 54,026, from December to March. However, the company clarified that it has not laid off any employee.

During the quarter the company has made a gross addition of 2,298 employees. In the BPO services segment, however, the headcount has came down to 11,426 from 12,750 in December.

Commenting on the BPO business, he said the company is trying to move away from voice-based services to platform-based services. So, it is unlikely that the company would make new recruitments for voice-based services.

Agencies