The Hindu Business Line : Is slowdown forcing staff down-sizing in RIL?

NEW DELHI: Economic slowdown has not spared even the largest conglomerate in India, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), which is carrying out major cost cutting measures, including downsizing of the staff, and has apparently put on hold mega investment pl ans.

From retail to SEZs to the $6 billion semiconductor business, investment plans appear to be caught in the web of the slowdown.

“As a good corporate practice, we constantly examine cost competitiveness and take appropriate measures regularly. It is a practice which is undertaken constantly at Reliance,” a spokesperson for Mukesh Ambani-led RIL group said.

He was responding to a query whether the group was going ahead with a major restructuring and if it had mandated consultants such as Cummins to recommend human resource remedy and whether these advisers had made strong recommendations for cutting the ove rlapping activities.

Though the spokesperson dismissed the possibility of restructuring as speculative, sources said that one of major indicators of the cost-cutting was that RIL had vacated five floors it had rented in a Connaught Place building and moved to another office in Okhla, amid speculations that many of the outsourced employees - be those for retail or SEZ businesses - were shown the door.

Asked if a salary cut of up to 15 per cent was in the offing for its middle-to-senior level executives, he said the query was “baseless and speculative” and “we do not wish to comment on the same”.

He also evaded a direct reply to a question whether the group had cut its workforce, including a majority of the contractual as also the workers from contractors for various businesses, by up to 20,000 people so far this year. - PTI

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