In A Massive Layoff, L&T Cuts 14,000 Jobs Due To Slowdown, Digitisation

In one of the biggest of such corporate exercises in recent times, the multi-national conglomerate Larsen & Toubro, or L&T, cut down 14,000 jobs in the July-September quarter this year, reported the Economic Times.

The engineering giant said this step had to be taken to bring the company down to the “right size” due to business slowdown, as well as because of jobs becoming redundant on the back of increased digitisation of operations.

Chief Financial Officer R Shankar Raman reportedly said:

The Middle East is an important source of business for L&T. The falling oil prices there, in addition to customers deferring orders in general, has made business challenging for the big conglomerate. But L&T is optimistic with receiving government orders that will compensate, at least to some extent, the lack of projects on the private sector side.

The Economic Times had also reported about an entrenchment exercise entailing 550 employees in L&T Finance Holding and a high attrition rate of 18 per cent in L&T Infotech – both earlier this year.

L&T is aiming to scale up revenue to Rs 2 lakh crore with a five-year strategy. As part of the plan, businesses under it that aren’t faring well will be monitored and a call taken on them in the next couple of years.