Suffering in silence: Brane Enterprises sacks 1,500 employees without notice

Hyderabad: Nagendra is one of 1,500 workers at the city-based company Brane Enterprises who have been sacked without being given any notice. Suffering in silence, the employees are struggling to make ends meet.

Speaking during a public hearing organized by the All India Professionals' Congress (AIPC) for the distressed employees of Brane Enterprises, Nagendra narrated the ordeal of the employees who have been left to fend for themselves as they were terminated after working without salaries for months.

Over 100 former employees, representing 3,000 employees of Brane Enterprises, gathered at the public hearing at Exhibition Grounds here to voice their grievances on unfair treatment.

Brane Enterprises is a company that is allegedly owned by Ramalinga Raju of Satyam fame and his family. Apart from Hyderabad, the firm also had branches in Bengaluru and other parts of the country.

Nagendra said, “I noticed a problem in April when my March salary was delayed by a few days. I am the sole breadwinner of my family, since May I have been managing my family's needs by pledging the gold ornaments of my family. My finances are dried up and I have no option to take care of my family now.” Nagendra said that he had tried for a job opportunity in other companies but many of them are offering a very low salary citing my work experience with Brane Enterprises ignoring my overall experience.

“My only appeal to the management is to clear the pending salaries to all the employees at the earliest which helps us to recover from the ongoing debts and mental agony over the few months,” he said and added that due to the lack of jobs, even his profile was not considered for marriage proposals. Vivek, who has been with Brane Enterprises since January 2024, described the difficulties that staff members confront. "Until HR told us in late April that our salaries would be delayed by 14 days, everything appeared to be going OK. Most of us waited patiently, while some panicked. But the real struggle started after 14 days," he said during the public hearing.

Elaborating, he said that partial payments for April were made to the employees, and things got worse in the months that followed. “Over 3,000 employees had not been paid since, and by August, 1,500 of them had been let go without explanation. We who stayed hoped for progress, but nothing came of it,” he added.

Unaware of Brane Enterprises' financial difficulties, Pushpita, another impacted employee, started working there in May. “When my first paycheck wasn't fully credited, I realized how serious the problem was. Since my September layoff, I have had difficulty finding another employment because the employer failed to issue me with a relieving letter or pay stubs. Without these documents, I lost two chances in the last round," she claimed.

Rahul, a previous worker and alumnus of NIT-Warangal, described a similar experience. "This was my second job, and I chose the organization carefully. I didn't get paid between May and October. My application to withdraw my provident fund was denied since the company had not made their contribution. Since I am the only provider for my family, this has produced serious problems," he said.

Minister of IT and Industries D Sridhar Babu also attended the public hearing and spoke about the complaints. In the IT sector, disputes between employers and employees are handled by the Labour Department. He promised that legal action would be taken if Brane Enterprises was proven to have committed any wrongdoing.

"We are dedicated to making sure that those impacted receive justice. The government will call in the company's management to arrange a fair settlement for the workers,” the Minister said.

AIPC chairman Praveen Chakravarty said, “We understand the business compulsions of companies and industry to downsize. But this situation with Brane Enterprises is not one of unforeseen business circumstances, but of manipulation and unfair business practices which led to thousands of employees being treated illegally and unfairly.

It seems that to showcase a strong IT engineering team to their investors and in the interest of raising funds, the management of Brane Enterprises, which claimed to have patented AI software, hired 1000s of graduates and subsequently within months let them go without months of payment. It is this unfair and dubious handling of the situation that AIPC is raising issue with.”