Since the appointment of the new board at Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS), in October 2018, the Indian infrastructure development and finance company has laid off about 43 per cent employees in order to cut costs.
According to the Company’s progress report, it has managed to bring down its wage bill by almost 47 per cent by trimming its workforce. About 43 per cent of its staff has been cut in the period October, 2018 to June, 2019.
In its first phase of manpower optimisation for four verticals, initiatives were taken to rationalise manpower—by assessing the feasibility of projects— and superannuated consultants were separated. In the second phase, it focussed on talent restructuring, merging of roles and responsibilities, and so on.
It is reported that the redundant roles and functions have been identified across eight more verticals, including IL&FS, ITNL, IFIN, IL&FS Energy Development Company and IL&FS Engineering and Construction Company (IECCL).
In the case of IECCL, the staff on the rolls of the company has been cut by 57 per cent between October, 2018 and June, 2019, which has led to a significant drop of 58 per cent in the wage bill. The expenditure on contract staff at IECCL has also come down significantly.
The second phase is already going on in the entities where the first phase has been successfully completed.
