Amazon to face off with workers, government on staff reduction in India

As Amazon looks to shed staff around the world, it is heading for a showdown with worker and government representatives over its hotly contested Voluntary Separation Program (VSP) in India.

Workers say that the program has not been truly voluntary, but rather a way of enacting layoffs without going through legally sanctioned procedures. On its part, Amazon has said that none of the workers who have left the company in the last few months have been laid off, but rather have participated voluntarily in the VSP.

The company has not revealed the number of workers it says have recently left the company via the VSP.

Meanwhile, the Pune Labor Commission has summoned representatives from Amazon India and the Pune-based Nascent Information Technology Employees Senaten (NITES), a workers rights association, to a joint meeting on January 17. Pune is the largest municipal district in the state of Maharashtra, and a major IT hub for the country.

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