Amazon India hands over pink slips to 60 employees, may fire more in future

Amazon India has reportedly laid off its 60 employees over global restructuring. According to a report published in the Economic Times, citing sources, it said that Amazon India may future might handover pink slips to more of its staff.

Sources close to the development told the publication that the second person said there might be more layoffs across teams as the company put 25 per cent more employees on performance improvement plans (PIPs) in the December quarter as compared with a year earlier.

Confirming the layoffs, Amazon said that the entire process was a part of company's global procedure.

“As a global organisation, we have recognised the need to organise our teams to keep us agile and help us use our resources optimally. This has impacted a small number of roles within the company and we are providing complete support to the impacted employees, including the option of relevant internal postings and outplacement services,” a company spokesperson told the newspaper, adding that Amazon continues to hire for multiple roles and currently has 4,000 job openings in the country, including several from previous years.

Meanwhile, shares of Amazon.com Inc fell 6% on Monday after US President Donald Trump again attacked the online retailer over the pricing of its deliveries through the United States Postal Service and promised unspecified changes.

"Only fools, or worse, are saying that our money losing Post Office makes money with Amazon," Trump tweeted.

"They lose a fortune, and this will be changed. Also, our fully tax paying retailers are closing stores all over the country...not a level playing field!"

Shares of the company were down 5.9% at $1,362.48, wiping out nearly $45 billion from its market value.

Trump has been vocal about his opposition to Amazon's use of the postal service and Monday's tweet adds to investor worries that the company could see more regulation.

Amazon did not immediately respond to requests for a comment.

On Saturday, Trump tweeted that if the post office "increased its parcel rates, Amazon's shipping costs would rise by $2.6 billion."

The US Postal Service (USPS) in November reported a decline in annual revenue, hurt by a drop in first-class and marketing mail, offset partly by an increase in package delivery.