It is official that Oracle India has decided to go for cost cutting and to pay its employees on hourly basis which means that it has indirectly converted all its employees to Contractors from regular ones. The reason given behind this move is that Oracle is concerned about its employees and doesn’t want to go for laying offs for which it is notorious, if looked at its employment history in India. Also Oracle has cut-down the initial offering package for the new joiners. Following is the news excerpt –
Oracle India staff now get hour-based pay?
The world’s second-largest software products company Oracle is understood to have begun linking the payment of its 20,000-odd employees in India with the productive hours they spend in the company. This has resulted in salary cuts, ranging between 10 and 50 per cent across the board.
Company sources explain that if an employee is a billable resource for 15 days a month, he will be paid in full for that period while for the rest of the period, he is paid a "nominal" amount. Replying to an email query, a company spokesperson in India said: "Oracle does not comment on speculation or rumours."
The company is also understood to have asked all non-billable employees (those on the bench) to get themselves engaged in internal projects, failing which they can explore opportunities outside the company. It is not, however, clear whether the company is asking the non-billable resources to work for outside companies as contract employees while still on Oracle’s rolls, or to use their non-productive hours to make money for themselves.
Initially implemented for the employees of Oracle Financial Services Software (formerly i-Flex Solutions), Oracle India has reportedly implemented this across all its centres in India.
Oracle India, however, has not communicated this decision to employees in writing. The team leaders and project managers in different centres have been informed about the decision orally.
"They are telling us that while many companies are laying off employees, Oracle does not want to take such extreme steps. They are saying that once things start improving, we will be back to all the usual compensation and allowances," said a senior employee of Oracle India on condition of anonymity.
Sources added that Oracle India has cancelled employee travel costs and withdrawn free snacks and food. Despite news that the company has not stopped recruitments in India, freshers who were given offer letters for annual packages of Rs 2.4 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh earlier are now being asked to consider packages of Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 1.8 lakh.
The policy is already in place at Oracle Financial Services Software and personally I have been confirmed about that by an employee of this firm at the condition of being anonymous.
Also other Indian firms are going for serious cost cutting. As per informal news,
– HCL Technologies has given pink slip to at least 50 of its before Christmas asking them to leave by January 5, 2009.
– Wipro has put on hold all the joinings in its technology division and the freshers who were selected for Wipro Technologies are given option to join its BPO center – Wipro Spectrun which means serious downsizing
– Sapient has backed off from paid leave policy and has asked all its employees to consume their all remaining/saved leaves by August 2009 or they will be considered revoked
– Infosys has slowed down its hiring process to all time low