Reliance group and its support firms layoff 5,000 employees

The global financial crisis has hit India’s largest private sector conglomerate. Sources claim that the Reliance group and its associate companies have asked about 5,000 employees to resign. A significant portion of the staff reduction has come from their retail operations. Some of the companies involved in the exercise are Reliance Retail, Reliance Logistics, Reliance Info Systems and Reliance Corporate Park. The resignations, as against a straight lay-off, leave employees in a better position to find new jobs. While the associate companies have been supporting Reliance Industries’ core operations for several years they will be shut down affecting permanent employees who are largely middle-level managers.

Some employees stated that as many as 3,000 people in the retail business were in the process of being sent home as the proposed expansion had been scaled back after an abrupt change in economic prospects in the last six months.