Wipro Chairman Rishad Premji Says No Plan to Lay Off Employees Due to Coronavirus Pandemic

Wipro Chairman Rishad Premji on Monday said the company has not laid off any employee due to the COVID-19 impact and has no plans to do so for now.

Premji said this in response to a question by a shareholder at the 74th annual general meeting (AGM) of the company held virtually.

"We are trying to drive cost reduction through various other means, through operationally and otherwise, but we have laid off no people and have no plans to lay off anybody at the moment," he said.

This was his first annual general meeting (AGM) as the Chairman of Wipro, after taking charge in July last year.

During his address to the AGM, Premji said without question, employee safety and well-being has been and will remain of paramount importance to us.

"In March, at the early onset of COVID-19, we triggered our business continuity plans and enabled work from home for about 93 per cent of our employees across the world. It was heartening and inspiring to observe the seamless teamwork which enabled the smooth execution of this massive change," he said.

In these past few months, we have settled well into this new way of working and our focus remains on making our clients successful, he said, adding that "I also believe that some of these changes will forever transform how we work in the future."

Stating that as part of our strategy in enabling businesses and consumers to transform, our strategy of driving a 'Digital' first approach is particularly relevant in these times, he said, "we have made significant investments in Digital, Cloud, Cybersecurity and in our engineering capabilities."

These investments and focus has helped us achieve leadership in these areas as acknowledged by our customers and analysts, he said, adding "Wipro Ventures, our Corporate venture arm has announced a second fund of USD 150M taking our total commitment to USD 250M."