A lot of companies have been firing people in massive rounds for a number of reasons. Recently, the IT&ITes employees labour union Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES) even said that the layoffs by Amazon India were unethical and illegal. Amazon is not the only company doing so, with Meta, Byjus, and Twitter also firing people in the thousands.
Just this week, as per reports, Amazon has already fired around 10,000 people, and is now asking people to sign up for their Voluntary Separation Program (VSP) programme which is essentially the employee choosing to resign voluntarily rather than the company outright firing them.
In order to sweeten the deal further, Amazon India is also offering the employees a bunch of perks so that they take part in it.
What Is Amazon India Doing?
According to a, The Hindu report the internal communication of Amazon reveals that “Amazon has recently sent details of a voluntary separation programme (VSP) to its employees in India asking them to voluntarily quit the company if they want to avail the programme’s benefits. Employees not participating in it will be let gone out without any benefits if they are part of a workforce optimisation programme.”
The company has given employees a deadline till November 29th to give their decision of whether they will be joining the VSP or not, after which they will have another deadline till December 5th 2022 for people who have signed up for the programme but want to quit out of it for some reason.
Read More: Here’s How Fired Workers Of Meta, Byjus, Twitter Are Fighting Back
As per a Business Today report L1 to L7 band in Amazon India’s Experience and Technology team have been told about their eligibility for the programme.
The internal document states that “Pursuant to the VSP eligible employees will have the opportunity to resign voluntarily from employment in exchange for the VSP benefits,” and ends with “Please remember that all Application Forms to participate in the VSP must be received via Smart forms no later than 6:30 a.m. India Standard Time on November 30, 2022.”
Apparently, Amazon is offering a bunch of perks in the SVP programme so that employees will take it up on their own. Among them is that three months of severance pay will be given to those in the programme, along with also a week’s salary for every six months of tenure at the company.
The employees will also be getting insurance until the end of the year and a weekly stipend for 12 weeks that is reportedly going to be “used to offset COBRA premiums.”
Bhagyashree Pancholy, employment law practitioner and general counsel at LanoGMBH, as per a report commented on this phenomenon saying that “If an employee is fired by the company, the termination can be challenged legally. But when an employee resigns voluntarily, then they waive their right to challenge the end of employment in a court of law. This is what the company is saving on.”
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Sources: Business Today, India Today, The Hindu
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This post is tagged under: Amazon India employees, Amazon India, Amazon India firing, Amazon India svp, Amazon India voluntary resignation, voluntary resignation, employees
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