Byjus, Meta, Twitter: India tech workers fight back amid mass layoffs

Thousands of young Indians are suddenly faced with an uncertain future as tech companies and start-ups announce mass layoffs amid global headwinds and funding constraints. But many refuse to remain silent about it.

When Ravi (name changed on request) realized in October that he and several colleagues were likely to lose their jobs at a major Indian edtech firm, he immediately formed a private messaging group with them.

The group soon became a “safe space” for Ravi and his teammates to voice their fears, share tips on how to deal with management, and discuss labor laws and workers’ rights.

“It has helped many on the team negotiate better exit policies with the company,” says Ravi.

The past few months have been difficult for Indian workers in private companies – particularly in the technology sector. Edtech firms Byju’s and Unacademy have cut hundreds of jobs; Social media giant Twitter has laid off more than half of its employees in India, and Indians are among those affected after Meta – Facebook’s parent company – cut about 13% of its 87,000 employees.

The wave of layoffs has sparked outrage on social media, and many of those affected – like their counterparts in other countries – are turning to the internet to express their dissatisfaction and form support networks.

They tweet about shameless layoffs, ask for jobs on LinkedIn, and use messaging platforms like WhatsApp and Slack to gather colleagues, assert their rights, and share information with journalists.

This is partly because the culture of shame and silence that once existed around layoffs in India is beginning to recede as mass layoffs become more common.

And while the jury is still out on how effective social media is as a tool for redress, experts say it’s helping to unite and amplify voices, especially since unions aren’t as powerful as they once were .

While millions of Indian workers still belong to unions, the movement as a whole has faltered for years. A number of factors — including burgeoning private-sector jobs, new labor reforms, and a rise in contract labor — have helped weaken their membership and power.

“As well as employers making themselves more accessible, social media also gives workers a platform to air their grievances, reducing the need for a mediator – a role traditionally played by unions,” says Professor Chandrasekhar Sripada, Professor of Practice, Organizational Behavior, at the Indian School of Business.

After Byju announced in October that it would “rationalize” about 2,500 employees to “achieve profitability,” many of its employees have spoken to the media — often anonymously — about the company’s culture and the pressures they face.

Fired Twitter employees take to social media to vent their frustration. “Always a tweep, never a twit,” tweeted a former employee in a veiled reference to new owner Elon Musk’s then-Twitter bio. “Got fired without a confirmation email. There’s always a new low,” said another.

Pritha Dutt, an expert in the management and development sector, points out that just a few decades ago layoffs weren’t that common and layoffs were most likely viewed as a “performance issue”.

“Today, layoffs and downsizing are common business practices, so firing is no longer a taboo subject,” she says.

As the labor market has expanded, Ms Dutt adds, employees have become more confident about the marketability of their skills and are not opposed to standing up for their rights, even if it means burning bridges by putting a person or organization in the social networks address media.

And that public outrage can sometimes be helpful, for example urging employers to apologize for insensitive firings of employees or for promoting a toxic work culture.

But Ms Dutt warns that this success could be limited and short-lived. The option may not be available to everyone either – many are still afraid to speak out, fearing it could jeopardize their future job prospects or face legal action from their employer.

As a result, many employees are looking for other ways to air their grievances and fight for their rights.

In the southern city of Thiruvananthapuram, 140 Byju employees protested, claiming they were being forced to resign, and also met with a Kerala state minister, who announced an investigation into the matter – the state is ruled by a coalition of left-wing parties that advocates for workers rights.

Days later, Byju said it reversed its decision to halt operations in Thiruvananthapuram.

Three former employees of an edtech company told the BBC, on condition of anonymity, that they are working with a union to negotiate severance and termination terms with the company.

Suman Dasmahapatra, president of the Bangalore chapter of the All India IT & ITeS Employees’ Union – a registered union that has been assisting hundreds of tech workers with labor disputes since 2018 – said the organization’s membership has been steadily growing.

He concedes that this is still tiny compared to the total number of employees – a majority of IT professionals, he says, still feel uncomfortable being union members, either because they fear reprisals from management, or because ” they don’t.” see themselves as “workers”.

But Mr Dasmahapatra says he is confident India will see a resurgence in unionization as the pressure and pull of global economic forces make the labor market more volatile.

In recent years, US giants like Amazon, Starbucks and Apple have seen their workers form unions, and observers say calls for unionization are likely to grow louder and spread across all industries.

However, Mr Sripada disagreed. He says that spreading and strengthening unions need not become the norm as workplaces have already become more aware of adopting progressive, people-centred policies.

“Unions are a product of poor human resource management. When employers fail, unions rise. Employers today have the benefit of hindsight, so the responsibility lies with them to make people management the heart of the business,” he says.

“But if organizations continue to fire people in insensitive and callous ways – as we often see – the story could be different.”