‘Overstaffed’ Satyam seeks ways to avoid job cuts

Satyam Computer Ltd has 10,000 excess employees in its 40,000-strong workforce, but despite this and the pressure on earnings due to the global downturn, the fraud-hit software company is not looking at mass layoffs, its new owner Tech Mahindra said on Friday.

"Without a doubt, revenue is on a downward trend, there is definitely stress on the bottomline," chairman Kiran Karnik told the media after a board meeting. "We are not looking at mass layoffs. There is a distinct possibility of where we could do rationalisation – manpower, rentals," he added.

The company discussed cost control measures, including wage cuts, at its board meeting, and ''We are looking at the ways on how to mange the cost, handle people and meet the challenges to the bottom line," Karnik said.

Tech Mahindra's chief executive officer Vineet Nayyar added that while Satyam has excess manpower, ''we are looking at least painful ways to take care of this issue."

Satyam's board will be joined on 1 June by four new members – Vineet Nayyar, C P Gurnani, Sanjay Kalra and Ulhas Yargop – nominated by Venturbay Consultants Pvt Ltd, taking the board's strength to 10, the company said in a separate statement.

Last month, Tech Mahindra acquired a 51 per cent stake in the Hyderabad-based company for Rs2,990 crore through an auction. Satyam's founder and former chairman shocked investors in January by saying profit figures had been fudged for years, putting in doubt the survival of a company once ranked as India's fourth-largest software services exporter.