Airtel to partly lay off Telenor employees post-merger
After receiving approval from The Department of Telecom for its acquisition of Telenor India, Bharti Airtel has stated that ‘not all people from Telenor India will find meaningful roles within Airtel.'
As per a media report, a section of Telenor India’s employees are staring in the face of layoffs.
Confirming the move, Airtel said “not all people from Telenor India will find meaningful roles within Airtel”.
As per the report, Telenor India has around 1,400 employees and 700 of them had been absorbed by Airtel across its India and international operations. Airtel has offered “good financial” package besides continuance of medical insurance and free calls to the dropouts, the source added.
Others have received mails from Bharti Airtel asking them to attend a meeting with the HR officials to discuss “way ahead and next step”, as per an employee working for the Norwegian telecom company’s Indian subsidiary in Andhra Pradesh circle.
The mail received by Telenor employees stated “You must be aware that Telenor (India) Communications Private Limited has been integrated with Bharti Airtel Ltd. With regards to this legal merger, we invite you for a personal discussion with the Airtel Team to inform you about way ahead and next steps. Be available for the meeting as per the details below.”
Besides appropriate support such as continued financial and medical allowances, Airtel is also assisting them through its placement partners,
The Department of Telecom had approved the merger this week, a move which will expand the subscriber base of Bharti Airtel to almost twice the size of new entrant Reliance Jio. Both the companies had entered into an agreement for the deal in February 2017. Bharti Airtel will buy Telenor India in a no-cash deal and take over its outstanding spectrum payments of Rs 1,650 Cr.
The transaction is expected to boost Sunil Mittal-led market leader’s 4G spectrum holdings as it continues to fight against Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Jio Infocomm. It will also help it close the revenue and subscriber market share gap with the emerging Vodafone India-Idea Cellular combine, which will become the country’s largest phone company after their merger is completed next month.
Coincidentally, as Vodafone India and Idea Cellular look to save costs, they are also expected to tread the layoff way and could lay off 5,000 of the combined workforce of 21,000 employees in the next few months.