NEW DELHI, April 20 (Xinhua) -- India's third largest software exporter Wipro is said to have sacked some 500 employees, a move the company has attributed to poor ratings in annual performance appraisal.
Though there has been no official confirmation on the number of employees being given the pink slip, Wipro said in a statement that it "undertakes a rigorous performance appraisal process on a regular basis to align its workforce with the business objectives, strategic priorities of the organization and requirements of our clients."
"This systematic and comprehensive performance evaluation process triggers a series of actions such as mentoring, retraining and up-skilling. The performance appraisal may also lead to the separation of some employees from the company and these numbers vary from year to year," it said.
As of December 2016, the southern Indian city of Bengaluru-based company had nearly 180,000 employees, including in non-software branches.
The sacking of so many employees at one go comes as industry body Assocham has warned that a tightening H-1B visa regime in the U.S. will force IT giants to create fundamental changes to their strategies in terms of hiring, salaries and jobs, which could impact employees in India too.
"Indian IT companies are bound to face disruptions by way of higher costs and even some laying off work force back home, as the rising rupee is aggravating the situation further for the technology export firms," the Assocham said in its report.
