5000 employees of Satyam Computers may be in danger of losing their jobs. The company has excess staff of around 10,000. Half of them could make the exit. This is indeed bad news for the employees of the company, who are already going through thoughts of uncertainties for the past several months.

The CEO of Tech Mahindra, the firm that bought Satyam, Vineet Nayyar, said the excess staff numbered more than 10,000 and some less painful ways to reduce the number of staff would have to be planned out.

Sources say that around 12,000 employees are on-bench, out of which, 7000 employees are in-between projects, 500 are on sabbaticals, and the rest of 4500 employees are undergoing training.

Deepak Parekh, member of Satyam Board, said, the company has the largest number of people, than any other IT company, compared to the billing. Hence, cut-offs to an extent are necessary to make the situation reasonable.

Sources from Satyam said no official number of lay-offs have been declared yet. Industry experts say the retrenchment may start from Hyderabad office, which has the largest number of employees. The lay-offs may cross 5000, but Tech Mahindra is trying ways to reduce the number of lay-offs and employ other means like virtual bench and sabbaticals.

Salman Khurshid, Corporate Affairs Minister, is not happy about the news. He said it is easy to go to extreme ends. The government has to take an in-between path. The company has to keep sensitive human issues in mind while laying-off employees and to not lay-off just anyone. The objective is the company’s survival and sometimes hard decisions have to be taken.