People with knowledge of the situation told Moneycontrol that on July 22, an emergency town hall meeting with more than 5,000 Byju’s Tuition Centre (BTC) employees resulted in a commitment from India’s most valuable startup to pay staff variable pay and other incentives while also promising not to fire any BTC employees.
The employees of BTC, who were preparing to organize protests across India on July 25 over a number of issues including the non-payment of production-linked pay and crucial incentives among other things, were meeting with Mrinal Mohit, the de facto head of Byju’s India company, who guided the discussions. According to the further sources, Mohit acknowledged that the business will begin paying incentives from next month onward while stating that variable compensation would be distributed in the next quarter.
According to the people, there was rumor that Byju’s would begin firing BTC staff on July 26 due to a significant decline in tuition center enrollment, which had spurred local business leaders to organize pan-India rallies.
Zia Ur Rehman, Area Business Head of a Byju’s Tuition Center, who was terminated on July 21 with immediate effect, claimed that the town hall was not scheduled; rather, it was held to put an end to the protests on July 25. Rehman, who was the primary organizer of the likely protests on July 25, informed Moneycontrol over the phone on July 22 that he had not received any explanation for why he had been fired.
“The firm has conceded to the major demands, thus for the time being, we have chosen not to continue the protests. Rehman, who attended the townhall with a coworker, continued, “We have three key demands: incentives, flexible compensation, and a pledge from them to not lay off any person. On July 21, Rehman’s email account was disabled immediately.
Rising issues at Byju’s Tuition Centers are just the latest in a long list of issues the most valuable edtech business in the world has been dealing with this year. Among these difficulties include the resignations of auditors and directors, searches by the government, and escalating hostilities with term loan B lenders.
Divya Gokulnath, a co-founder of Byju’s, was undoubtedly very optimistic about Byju’s Tuition Centers. In a January interview with Moneycontrol, Gokulnath stated that Byju’s planned to expand up to 300 physical tutoring facilities by 2023.
“We’re building for the way in which students are learning now — the new way of learning, which is hybrid. So we launched 300 hybrid learning centres last year and we plan to do 300 more this year,” Gokulnath said during the World Economic Forum in Davos.
