Verizon India hands out pink slip to 1,200 employees

Verizon India is said to have handed out pink slip to about 1,200 employees based out of Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad offices following a restructuring in India, according to a report published in Financial Express.

The company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the US-based Verizon Communication and has over 7,000 employees in India.

The affected employees through Forum for IT Employees (FITE) reportedly approached the labour departments of Telangana and Tamil Nadu to clarify the present condition and the problems faced by them.

“As Verizon consolidates its strategy so we can scale, compete and continue to be successful, Verizon’s IT, including Verizon Data Services India, is transforming into an engineering-centric, technology organization. The transformation entails rationalization of roles which has an impact on headcount," Verizon spokesperson told the financial daily.

An employee who has worked with the company for six years at its Hyderabad campus told The News Minute, "a member of the HR team summoned me to their office and told me to clear my desk and take everything along". He further alleged "the HR simply said they were going to fire me. So, I had to either sign documents saying I resign or they will forcefully terminate me".

When protested "the bouncers pushed me back into my chair and held me by my shoulders till I signed the document. It was an awful experience and I can't begin to tell how demeaning it was," said the employee.

Most of the retrenched employees were in band 3 to band 7 and were forced to resign.