In an emergency town hall meeting held on July 22, Byju's Tuition Centre (BTC), India's most-valued startup, addressed the concerns of its over 5,000 employees and averted planned protests that were scheduled for July 25. This meeting was led by Mrinal Mohit, the head of Byju’s India business, and came amidst growing disconnection among employees over various issues, including non-payment of production-linked pay and critical incentives.
During the town hall meeting, Mrinal Mohit assured BTC employees that the company would remit variable pay and other incentives to staff. He also committed to not laying off any employee from the BTCs, despite a substantial drop in subscriptions at the tuition centres. Mohit further revealed that the payment of incentives would commence from the following month, with variable pay being remitted in the next quarter.
What the officials have to say:
"This address by Mrinal Mohit to BTC managers was planned well in advance, to mark the completion of one year of BTC. It was not a reaction to any rumour, but a celebration of all our achievements in hybrid learning. It was also organised to transparently share the plan for the next six months as we now embark on building BTC 2.0, which is even more effective and efficient than BTC 1.0. In addition, all the concerns of our employees, including about restructuring and incentives were duly and satisfactorily addressed," said a spokesperson for Byju's.
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However, some employees expressed a different perspective. Zia Ur Rehman, an Area Business Head at a Byju’s Tuition Centre, claimed that the town hall meeting was not pre-planned but rather convened to prevent the protests scheduled for July 25. “This townhall wasn’t planned, it happened to stop the protests on July 25,” said Zia Ur Rehman
The challenges faced by Byju’s Tuition Centres add to the existing issues encountered by the world's most valued edtech company this year. These challenges include resignations of auditors and directors, government authorities conducting searches, and tensions with term loan B lenders.
Following that, Rehman, who attended the townhall with one of his colleagues added “The company has agreed to the main demands and so, for now, we have decided to not go ahead with the protests. Three main demands about incentives, variable pay and a commitment from them to not lay off any employee." Rehman’s email address was deactivated with immediate effect on July 21.
Video that went viral:
In a recent video, that is making rounds of Twitter shows an employee speaking harshly about the incentive. The employee also claimed that the work culture is abusive. In the video she is heard speaking about lack of incentive and support. She said "Let everybody know about this and i will not shun it down." In addition to that, she said "Yes sir, i am screaming because i am going mad."
Meanwhile, Byju's co-founder, Divya Gokulnath, had expressed optimism about the tuition centers, previously stating that the company planned to open 300 more physical tuition centres in 2023, catering to the new hybrid learning approach.
“We're building for the way in which students are learning now — the new way of learning, which is hybrid. So we launched 300 hybrid learning centres last year and we plan to do 300 more this year,” Gokulnath told
