Mahindra Satyam may Layoff 5000

Chennai: Months after assuring that there would be no further lay offs, Mahindra Satyam may just lay off another 5000 benchers. Many employees on the Virtual Pool Program (VPP) of the company have been sent a formal notice of two months by e-mail.

According to the Times of India, the mail dated October 19, reads: "In our earlier communication dated June 11, 2009, you were placed on VPP for a period of six months and accordingly, your Virtual Pool Leave is due to end on December 18, 2009. It is rather unfortunate that due to the continued economic constraints and business outlook, we do not anticipate that we will have the ability to recall many of our valued associates within the VPP period."

On June 11, the company had announced the creation of the virtual pool, placing around 8,000 associates on the bench. "The surplus employees will be put in the VPP and paid basic salary, PF and medical insurance," Vineet Nayyar, CEO, Tech Mahindra, had said while ruling out any retrenchment.

However, with the six-month period of the VPP set to lapse in December, the company has served a two-month notice, as required by the employment contract, reportedly on over 5,000 employees. Sources said that the company did not have enough projects on hand and was not able to recall many associates.

A Mahindra Satyam spokesperson said that the company had absorbed about 1,500 associates from the virtual pool. The spokesperson also denied that the company was "laying off" people, even as the mail speaks of "separation of employment".

"We have given these employees an option of availing outplacement services. We will try to help them to the best of our abilities," he said.

Tech Mahindra, TCS competing or $400 Million Deal

New Delhi: Tech Mahindra, IBM and Tata Consultancy (TCS) are competing for a $400 million (Rs. 1,800 crore) IT outsourcing contract from Sistema Shyam Teleservices (SSTL). Negotiations are on with these companies for a 10-year deal, but the contract will contain a clause that will allow Sistema Shyam to exit after five years, said a source familiar with the matter to The Economic Times.

Sistema, a Russia-based company providing various consumer services, has a 74 percent stake in the joint venture with the Shyam Group that offers mobile services under the 'MTS' brand in India. Sistema Shyam is the only CDMA player, among the new crop of telecom operators. "A final decision on the deal is expected to be taken by the year-end," said Rajeev Batra, Chief Information Officer of SSTL. He confirmed that the three IT companies were in the reckoning for the contract, but did not confirm the value of the contract.

The proposed deal will not include the operator's BPO operations, as the company has already outsourced its customer care operations to Essar Group's Aegis BPO. The winning company will manage SSTL's IT systems across the 22 telecom circles in the country. SSTL, which is scheduled to launch telephony services in Delhi next month, plans to be a pan-India operator by the third quarter of next year. Early this year, SSTL had tied up with IBM for designing and building its green datacenters in Chennai and Gurgaon.