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Pruning at IBM Global

Chitra Phadnis

Rukmini Priyadarshini

BANGALORE, Dec. 12.

FOR the first time in India, IBM Global Services has laid off people. While the company refused to give out the exact number of employees affected, sources put it at anywhere between 50 and 100.

People have been sent home earlier, but these were because of ``performance related'' reasons and not due to ``layoffs'', company spokespersons clarified.

Sources said that the layoffs were announced on Monday this week and people came back after the weekend to find they were without jobs.

The company was making a ten per cent cut in jobs across the APAC region and all divisions were told to reduce their staff by ten per cent, sources said.

When contacted, the company did not deny the layoffs but said, ``We keep a continuous check on the pulse of the maketplace and the shifts and future demands. We also evaluate the performance of our employees...and then align our resources to meet our cus tomers' needs. As a result of changing needs of our customers, some positions may become redundant.''

``Where possible, we deploy affected people in other parts of IBM. This is an global IBM practice,'' said the company. However, this time around some of the positions have become redundant, and the company had to let people go, said company sources.

They maintained that the numbers were ``insignificant''.

In July, when IBM had announced a worldwide cut in human resources, IBM spokespersons had said that the APAC region would not be affected.