Employees of ACC and Ambuja Cements are out in the market looking for jobs with the new owner, the Adani Group, relocating significant roles to Ahmedabad, sources said.
Both ACC and Ambuja Cements, acquired last year by Gautam Adani, have their headquarters in Mumbai. However, with the acquisition by the Adani Group, the focal point is shifting to Gujarat and so are some of the key roles in the company. For instance, Ajay Kapur, Chief Executive Officer of the Cement Business of Adani Group, operates out of Ahmedabad, while other leadership roles, including the heads of divisions such as procurement, supply chain, health and safety have also been shifted out of Mumbai.
People reporting to such divisional chiefs either spend a substantial time outside Mumbai and Maharashtra or shuttle back and forth Mumbai and Ahmedabad. Sources said this situation is creating a strained atmosphere with a large number of people preferring to look for other options. Women having family responsibilities and those who are not willing to relocate have little option but to look for alternative employment opportunities.
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Those who have not relocated are compelled to travel because their bosses are no longer sitting in Mumbai, said sources. There is a similar situation in some of the other locations, sources added.
The sources further said that competing firms in the industry, based in Mumbai, have been receiving calls for job vacancies as have companies belonging to other conglomerates in the city.
In response to queries sent by businessline, a spokesperson for the Adani group replied, “We do not comment on our employee related matters.”
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Besides the issues related to relocation, there is a disquiet among employees due to the uncertainty triggered by corporate governance issues surrounding the group and intense scrutiny by stakeholders. There is also fear of job cuts as the group grapples with the huge debt on its balance sheet and is looking for ways to reduce and optimise costs.
The news filtering in from Ahmedabad, the seat of the Adani empire, has given rise to some uneasiness as sources said that the group is making no attempt to hold on to people who want to leave.
The two companies between them have an employee base of over 10,000 and Mumbai, being the headquarters, has a significant number of them. At the end of FY22, ACC had over 6,000 permanent employees on its rolls of which the management staff is about 60 percent, while the remaining staff were shop floor workers, deployed at its various plants and sites. Ambuja Cements has 4,700-odd employees with roughly 70 percent of them in the management cadre.