As debt laden Tata Teleservices looks out for exit plan, 5,000 employees may lose their jobs: report

Debt-laden, Tata Teleservices is preparing an exit plan for most of its 5,000-odd employees, which include a notice of three to six months, severance packages for those willing to leave earlier and a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) for elders, the Economic Times reported.

Citing an official close to the developments, the newspaper reported, "The Tata Group has always taken care of its people, but very few will get absorbed in other group companies. It is unfair to saddle other Tata companies with employees of TTSL."

The telecom unit of Tata Sons had reportedly asked its circle heads to leave by March 31, next year.

According to the company's annual report, there were 5,101 employees on its rolls as on March 31, 2017. 

Earlier in May, Tata Teleservices had fired between 500 and 600 employees to tide over difficult times in the hyper-competitive telecom market.

As many as 500-600 employees had been impacted by the lay offs in sales and other related functions, two people familiar with the matter said.

The lay-offs were across locations, they said, adding that the severance package being offered to the employees impacted by the decision is one month's salary for every year of service.

Tata Teleservices spearheads Tata Group s presence in the Indian telecom market. The company, along with the listed arm Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd has presence in 19 telecom circles in the the country.

It offers integrated telecom solutions to its customers across wireline and wireless networks on platforms like GSM, CDMA and 3G.

As per the data of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), Tata's mobile subscriber base stood at 51.2 million as on February 28, 2017. The company has nearly 4.4% market share in the country's total mobile subscriber base of more than 1.16 billion.