Lehman Bpo Employees Homeless
Ashish Sinha, a middle-management employee with Lehman Brothers’ business process outsourcing (BPO) unit in Mumbai, was going to move into a bigger house in October for a rent of Rs 16,000 a month. He was also planning to get married in the middle of the month. However, since Monday, when Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, he found himself jobless. He has approached his new landlord to refund Rs 2 lakh, which he had given as a security deposit.
The situation is worse for Preeti Sagar and her two colleagues, who are in their mid-twenties. They have rented out a flat near their office at Rs 50,000 a month. Now they have no idea how they will continue to stay in that house.
Around 1,200 employees of Lehman Brothers’ BPO in Powai, a Mumbai suburb, are facing similar problems. They have a deadline of 15 days to find a new job. They are free to come to office, if they wish to. And they have been told that this month’s salary is their severance package.
The mood at Lehman’s investment banking and broking business is not too different. The saving grace: employees do not know what is going to happen. “We are simply reporting to office and making calls to head hunters, chatting up with friends and playing computer games,” said an investment banking employee. Many are hoping that Barclays Bank will bail out the Indian operation as well. Full News