‘Today is your last day’: Nearly 120 staff shown the door at India Today

“Today is your last day. Please submit your resignation.”

That, according to Anmol Kumar Mahto*, is what he was told last Wednesday, about an hour before his shift ended at the TV Today Network Limited office in Noida’s Sector 16. He had spent two years on the Hindi website team. He says he was called to a ground-floor cabin where his manager and an HR representative, Babita, were waiting.

Anmol claims HR already had his full-and-final settlement papers ready and he was told that the move was linked to a restructuring exercise. He submitted his resignation, surrendered his laptop and ID card, and left.

Employees say roughly 120 staff across company verticals were asked to resign between July 20 and July 24. Most of those affected were from the Aaj Tak Hindi website team, according to staff. Others were from camera operations, video editing, graphics, fact-checking, the Data Intelligence Unit and Aaj Tak Radio. Employees claim some in the India Today English web team were affected too.

Most of those approached resigned at the instance of HR and their managers, they claimed. Employees claimed those who refused to resign were terminated. Those who resigned received two months’ full salary while those terminated are to receive two months’ basic salary, they claimed.

Newslaundry could not independently verify these claims.

‘I wasn’t even allowed to meet colleagues’

The resignations were filed via Keka, a third-party HR platform used by the group. Employees say the platform lists several reasons for resignation, and that people selected different ones – some “restructuring,” some “others”. Asked to state a reason, some entered a standard resignation. Many, employees said, wrote that management had asked them to resign.

Raju Dev*, who says he has been with Aaj Tak for 13 years, claimed staff had been waiting on appraisals and that the forms had not been circulated. “I arrived at the office on Thursday. I had no idea that such an incident was about to occur. I was working when, like the others, I was asked to come downstairs. I was told to resign right then and there. No concrete reason was provided. After I submitted my resignation, my laptop and ID card were taken away, and I was told to leave.”

“I dedicated over 13 years of my life to this organisation, yet I wasn’t even allowed to meet my colleagues… I quietly returned home…They aren’t even giving a reason. If my performance had been poor, how would I have worked here for 13 years? I feel cheated.”

Naina Rajput, who says she had worked there four years, described a similar experience. “I was on a shift on July 21 that was scheduled to end at 2 pm. Around 12 pm, I was called downstairs, asked to resign, and told to go home. However, I had some belongings at my desk upstairs. I went to retrieve them, and that gave me a chance to say goodbye to my colleagues.”

Some staffers who came to the Noida office the next day to return remaining company assets such as laptops were stopped at the gate itself to deposit the same, another employee claimed.

Asked about the restructuring, a senior employee claimed the company is under financial pressure. The same employee said large-scale layoffs had been planned last year and averted, that management went ahead this time, and that the process is expected to continue.

The company, which operates brands such as Aaj Tak and India Today, had seen a sharp decline in profits in the last financial year, with its annual net profit plunging 81 percent to nearly Rs 14 crore. Reports suggested that among factors that influenced its performance were subdued advertising revenues, restructuring costs, and losses linked to its radio business. Its revenue fell 19 percent to nearly Rs 807 crore.

Staff still on the rolls claim the process has not stopped. They claimed six people associated with India Today magazine were let go in late May, following the same pattern. They said several high-salary staff left the group for NDTV not long ago, while those being let go now include people with much smaller salaries, even around Rs 30,000 a month.

Newslaundry emailed questions to the HR department, News Director Supriya Prasad, and Group Consulting Editor B V Rao. This report will be updated if a response is received.

*Names changed upon request