Edtech major Byju’s has again delayed the full and final settlement of its laid-off employees. The firm had earlier shifted the payment timeline from September to November.
The edtech major is making the payments in a phased manner on a weekly basis and has already settled the payments of those that were due in October, according to a source who did not want to be identified.
- Also read: Byju’s settles dispute with Davidson Kempner as Ranjan Pai buys out debt in ₹1,400-crore transaction
However, a few former employees of the edtech major took to social media platforms and alleged that the company is yet to pay their dues and they would have to resort to legal actions if the dues were not cleared.
A detailed questionnaire sent to Byju’s did not elicit any response and calls were unanswered.
Byju’s has laid off thousands of employees in multiple rounds since 2022. The company has been grappling with a liquidity crunch amid pending lender repayments and delayed fundraising plans.
Layoffs in Byju’s
In June, the firm laid off 1,000 employees across various departments, including mentoring, logistics, training, sales, post-sales, and finance. Later in August, another 400 employees were laid off, which Byju’s said was after a performance review in the mentoring, and product expert division.
The employees let go from May to July were informed that they would receive their salaries along with the final settlement by September 15.
However, on September 14, the company sent an e-mail to the affected employees notifying them of a delay in disbursing their dues. Meanwhile, the company provided a new timeline in the e-mail, saying the employees can expect to receive their outstanding payments by November 17.
The newly-appointed CEO of Byju’s India operations, Arjun Mohan, had initiated a restructuring effort expected to impact 4,000-5,000 jobs.
Lenders’ dilemma
Recently, Byju’s resolved the longstanding issue with Davidson Kempner, linked with covenants in its subsidiary Aakash. In November, Manipal Group chairman Ranjan Pai bought out the debt investment of the US Hedge Fund, in a ₹1,400-crore deal, businessline reported.
The company has submitted a proposal to its $1.2-billion Term Loan B lenders to repay the loan within the upcoming six months. Byju’s aims to achieve this by making an initial payment of $300 million within the next three months.
It has also put two of its assets — upskilling platform Great Learning and Epic — up for sale, businessline had also reported earlier.
Byju’s is yet to file its FY23 financial results and its detailed financial results for FY22. Earlier this month, it posted a total standalone income of ₹3,569 crore for FY22 as against ₹1,552 crore in FY21. Meanwhile, EBITDA loss decreased to ₹2,253 crore in FY22 (₹2,406 crore).