Telangana IT Minister Sridhar Babu assured appropriate action and justice to past and present employees of Brane Enterprises.
Published Nov 18, 2024 | 8:14 AM ⚊ Updated Nov 19, 2024 | 12:39 PM
A memorandum with five demands was submitted to Telangana IT Minister Sridhar Babu by Brane Enterprises' employees
“I moved to Hyderabad from Barampura in Odisha for my job at Brane Enterprises,” 30-year-old Sameer told South First. “I came here with many hopes after landing a job as an Assistant Solution Leader, because of the pay,” revealed the family’s sole breadwinner.
Sameer is just one of the many employees who fell prey to the sudden layoffs at Brane Enterprises, a Hyderabad-based startup.
“After months of not getting any salary, I got a mail in the middle of the night in August telling me that I was terminated,” Sameer continued.
“They kept making false promises of payment one after another. Today, I have no job, still haven’t gotten the pending salary and have had to borrow about ₹2 lakh from friends to support my family,” he explained.
After working in an Information Technology (IT) job with hopes to make a life for himself, he now tutors kids out of Malakpet.
In the lead-up to the midnight layoffs, the employees at Brane Enterprises were caught in an ill-fated roller coaster ride.
At the beginning of April, Byrraju Ramalinga Raju, the son of Satyam Ramalinga Raju (infamous for the Satyam Computers scam in the 2000s) and the founder of the company announced a recruitment drive to drive the company’s growth.
However, that very month, Brane Enterprises was unable to pay its employees on time. The one untimely payment marked the beginning of a chain of events leading to the overnight layoff of over half the workforce.
On Sunday, 17 November, All India Professionals’ Congress (AIPC) held a public hearing at the Nampally Exhibition Grounds in Hyderabad to address the “injustice” faced by Brane Enterprises’ employees.
Titling the event “Injustice for IT Professionals in Hyderabad by Brane Enterprises,” they postulated that the company was guilty of laying off 1,500 employees, and not paying 3,000 others on time.
“After the death of a young employee at Ernst and Young (EY), we got numerous emails from Brane’s employees. After looking into the complaints issue for two months, we verified that the issue is genuine,” said AIPC Chairperson Praveen Chakravarthy while speaking at the public hearing.
AIPC drafted a memorandum on behalf of the employees, detailing five primary demands – intervention from the government, immediate release of pending salaries and payments, completing pending Pension Fund contributions, issuing payslips for pending salaries, and releasing severance pays.
A group of attendees presented the memorandum with these five demands to Telangana IT Minister Sridhar Babu in the presence of TPCC president Mahesh Goud.
The minister assured the attendees that the government would resolve the issue and get them justice.
“If Brane Enterprises cannot do the bare minimum while letting go of its employees, it should be castigated,” said Vijay Mahajan, the CEO of Rajiv Gandhi Foundation assuring the employees that he will take up the issue with concerned officials in Delhi.
Deeming the entire fiasco a case of “gross mismanagement,” he questioned why the company hired an additional workforce in May when it knew it had challenges since April.
“This is a collective fight for the bare minimum,” Indian Youth Congress leader Manish Sharma said at the public hearing.
“Not just the 3,000 affected by Brane’s non-payment of salaries and layoffs, but millions are oppressed by the new “Company Raj” he alleged. He also said that such violations of human dignity called for a united fight across party lines for the sake of the country’s future.
Vijay Mahajan (left) and Manish Sharma (right)
Several employees (past and present) spoke about the difficulties they have had to endure because of Brane Enterprises’ recent actions.
A graduate from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras who joined the company this January, said that he had to sell his ancestral properties to pay EMIs.
“Despite being the only earning member of my family, I didn’t receive my salary for five to six months,” he revealed. He added that he lost three potential marital matches as they rejected him after a quick background check about his employers.
With 18 years of experience at DCX Technologies, Israel is another employee who wasn’t paid by Brane Enterprises. “Although I’ve retained my job, it is wrong of me to stay silent when all my former colleagues are struggling,” he told South First.
He was brought on board by Brane Enterprises as a project lead. “I was excited about my future at Brane. However, the struggle I faced as the sole earner in a family of seven is harsh,” he said.
“We joined in spite of Satyam Ramalinga Raju’s involvement in Brane Enterprises as we were desperate for a job in this economy,” Nagender, a former employee explained. “Laying us off would’ve been fine, but they chose to withhold our salaries. I’ve had to mortgage my wife’s gold to support my family,” he continued.
On the other hand, Pushpita joined Brane Enterprises through campus placement. Working in the company since July 2023, she is stuck in a unique predicament. “I am neither a fresher nor sufficiently experienced. Despite numerous interviews with multiple companies, I am unable to find a job,” she told South First.
She added that she either got rejected for her lack of experience or offered half her salary because of Brane Enterprises’ bad reputation.
Current and former employees of Brane Enterprises sharing their struggles at the public hearing
“We will definitely try and address the issues faced by employees,” Sridhar Babu assured. “IT companies take advantage of not coming under the purview of Industrial Disputes. The idea behind the exemption was to drive growth,” he explained.
“Congress is with the employees who are suffering. We will investigate to know if the company is intentionally cheating its employees or if it is facing any actual problems,” he added while assuring justice to the employees.
He added that the Congress was responsible for the IT boom in India over the last three decades, and that when a company exploits its employees, it ceases to be a private issue.
(Edited by Neena)
