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Cognizant Layoffs: Coronavirus Pandemic has Only Amplified a “Normal Process”

Cognizant is reportedly laying off nearly 18,000 employees, a move which is being condemned by state IT employee unions of Karnataka and Chennai

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DQINDIA Online
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Cognizant

Cognizant, an American multinational corporation that provides IT services, is reportedly laying off as many as 18,000 employees, according to state IT employee unions of Karnataka and Chennai. The move has invited the wrath of the IT unions who say that firing employees at such a critical time is “illegal”. The Karnataka State IT/ITeS Employees Union has also sent legal notices to the organization as they received over 20 complaints, according to a report on CNBC.

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Cognizant, however, has issued a statement saying it is a “performance management” process which is normal happening in all IT companies and is not related to the Coronavirus pandemic. “Performance management is a normal process across all companies in the IT industry, including Cognizant. While Cognizant does not comment on rumor and speculation in the marketplace, we would like to clarify that recent third party allegations regarding a specific number of job actions are not accurate, not based on facts, and were not announced by Cognizant,” said a statement from the company.

Cognizant Layoffs in Previous Years

The above statement issued by Cognizant may not entirely be inaccurate considering the fact that in October – November 2019, the company's CEO Brian Humphries wrote a letter to his employees saying they would have to let go of 10,000 to 12,000 employees as part of their “Fit for Growth” plan that included streamlining their operating model, evolving skill sets, and reduce costs.

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“In our people-intensive business, cost reduction always involves difficult choices. but with an eye to the long-term health of the company, we have made the decision to remove approximately 10000 to 12000 mid-to-senior level associates from their current roles in the coming quarters,” said Humphries in the letter. The company’s content moderation business is also being shut down.

Cognizant had also reported a net profit decline of over 39 percent at USD 395 million for December 2019. The company had also stated that they were hoping to grow their revenue by 2 to 4 percent in 2020, by undertaking steps that involved “restructuring charges”.

Prior to that, in October 2018, Cognizant had reportedly fired 200 senior level executives as part of the organization’s plan to accommodate employees who have the skills required for a modern digital environment. Cognizant had made it to the headlines even in 2017 for laying off nearly 6000 employees in Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai.

At present, the company says that it is looking to hire at various levels in India and globally. “Likewise, the company continues to invest heavily in upskilling and reskilling its employees at scale in newer digital technologies, including cloud, analytics, digital engineering and IoT, where the company is seeing above industry-average growth,” said the statement from Cognizant.

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