Amazon denies laying off employees, says all resignations voluntary

Representatives of the e-commerce giant appeared before the labour commissioner of the Union Labour Ministry in Bengaluru on Wednesday.

They told the labour ministry the company only let go of those employees who wished to take part in its separation programme by accepting a severance package.

According to media reports, Amazon sent a mail to its employees that read: “This communication is to inform you that Amazon is implementing a Voluntary Separation Program (VSP) which is temporarily available to eligible employees within Amazon’s AET organization. Pursuant to the VSP eligible employees will have the opportunity to resign voluntarily from employment in exchange for the VSP benefits described below."

The development came after Amazon’s recent announcement that the company would let go of 10,000 employees globally.

However, the affected employees have questioned the programme claiming that there is no clarity on how the scheme would work.

The ministry had issued a summon to Amazon following a petition by the Pune-based employee union Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES), urging the government to take steps against Amazon.

On Saturday (Nov 19), NITES submitted a petition requesting the central government and state labour authorities to conduct an inquiry regarding the unethical and illegal layoffs via email sent to employees by Amazon.

NITES president Harpreet Singh Saluja said the law of the land is above Amazon policies.

As per the Industrial Disputes Act, the employer cannot, without prior permission from the appropriate government, lay off any employee, he said.

Meanwhile, no one appeared for the union at the hearing on Wednesday, ET reported, adding that the authorities decided to take a decision after hearing it.

In May this year, Amazon said that its India unit created about 1.16 million direct and indirect jobs in the country and also pledged to create 2 million direct and indirect jobs by 2025.