Shocked Satyam employees begin job hunting

HYDERABAD - Jolted by the biggest fraud in India’s corporate history, thousands of employees of Satyam Computer Services have begun hunting for jobs in other companies.

About 15,000 software professionals and other employees of Satyam have sent their CVs to placement companies and job portals during the last two days. Fearing trouble, more than 200 employees have also resigned during the last three to four days, sources in the company said.

A day after founder-chairman B. Ramalinga Raju resigned after admitting Rs.70-billion fraud, there was panic and confusion among 53,000 employees.

Though facing an uncertain future in Satyam, the employees attended to their duties at company headquarters and other offices, including business process outsourcing (BPO) centre, here Thursday.

‘Like several of my colleagues, I have also sent my CV. Everybody is afraid of losing the job and it’s better to search a new job before it’s too late,’ said a BPO employee on condition of anonymity.

Inside the premises, the employees discussed in groups the shocking developments, the uncertainty and future plans. But they avoided the media on the instructions of their higher-ups.

There was tight security around Satyam work centres in the city as security guards tried to keep a battery of reporters and cameramen at bay. Anxiety was writ large on the faces of employees as they walked into the campuses.

Some employees are trying for alternate jobs in the very companies for which they are doing project work at Satyam. While employees who have over two years or past experience are confident of securing new jobs, freshers were the worst hit.

The employees have said they were angry because only a few days ago Ramalinga Raju had assured them that the management was doing everything possible to get Satyam back on track.

Raju had written a letter to the employees amid ‘wild speculations and unchecked rumours’ following the Satyam board’s bid to acquire Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties.

Satyam employees are spread over India and abroad. The company has centres in India, the US, Canada, Brazil, Britain, China, Hungary, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Malaysia, Singapore and Australia.

The Andhra Pradesh government has said that the interests of shareholders and employees were of prime concern. As Satyam was the brand image of Hyderabad, the government was keen to rescue it.

Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to set up a management team to run the affairs of Satyam ‘to restore the confidence of the global customers in its business continuity, so that the interests of the employees and other stakeholders are protected till an alternative credible management is put in place for the company’.

He suggested that the management team be comprised ‘personalities of globally known integrity and competence like Azim Premji, Narayana Murthy and S. Ramadorai’.