Altisource Business Solutions, the Indian arm of Luxembourg-based Altisource Portfolio Solutions, a technology and services provider for mortgage and real estate industries, laid off over 100 staff in India in the last two days, as per employees impacted by the retrenchment.
Karnataka State IT/ITeS Employees Union (KITU), representing technology workers in India, has confirmed the development and said it was all set to move court against Altisource’s ‘unethical mass lay offs.’
An email query sent to Altisource’s in India did not elicit any response un til going to the press.
KITU general secretary C. Ullas told in an interview, “Massive retrenchments happened in Altisource, in which hundreds of employees were made to resign from the company. Such termination, without even serving a notice, has no legal sanctity and we will help these laid-off employees fight this legally.’’
The Nasdaq-listed Altisource Portfolio Solutions has over 3,200 employees globally, of which 2,100 are in India between Bengaluru and Mumbai. The company has recently closed down its operations in the Philippines, as per a source at Altisource.
“Companies have to obtain approval from the labour department in order to execute lay offs and such permissions are given only for specific reasons under regulations defined in the Industrial Disputes Act. Violating this rule is an offence and forcing employees to resign makes it a double crime as employees have the legal right to refuse to sign the resignation,’’ said KITU.
One of the senior employees, who got laid off said, “In some cases, the HR didn’t even insist on a resignation letter. I was told that my position in the company got redundant due to realignment of business structure. In less than a day I was jobless.’’