Employees ‘Win’ Huge Redundancy Packages From Gambling Tech Company
By Ashutosh Nayak

"November salary: I expected I would receive half the amount of what actually got credited..No match to Ivy," reads an entry by one Murali Krishna if you enter into "Ivy Comptech" community in Orkut. "What an amazing compensation... Ivy treated its employees like Kings and Queens and when a sudden unfortunate thing happened.. Ivy made way for its employees to leave the company as Kings and Queens again.... Hats off to Ivy..," reads another entry.

Hyderabad-based Ivy Comptech, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Gibraltar-based PartyGaming that owns a number of online poker and casino portals, is going through a really rough terrain after president George Bush signed a bill that banned internet gambling on October 4 shutting off 6 billion dollar in gambling revenues worldwide.  IVY Comptech Pvt Ltd. is a premier provider of software products and solutions (including Call Centre) to the global online gaming industry

Though the company is not closing down its operation even after losing its biggest market in the US, it is in the process of handing over pink slips to around 400 employees who deal with customers in the US.  Yet there are hardly any long faces, picket lines or sloganeering which was used to be the norm a few years ago. The mainstream media too ignored the issue for obvious reasons.

Thanks to the compensation which is said to be around six-months salary, laid-off employees are now set out for their favourite holiday destinations, some even thinking of going back to study while some others set to join other companies.  It is learnt that HSBC, DE Shaw and UBS conducted specials interviews for these Ivy guys and some are said to be joining HSBC this week. According to a reliable source in HSBC, some talents from Ivy have already been hired with a 10 per cent hike in salary based on the company’s “tie-up” with Ivy.

Observes an analyst: The development is a “blessing in disguise” for a few laid-off employees who would now be able to get rid of the “complexity” born out of associating themselves with a firm which is into gambling. However, most of the employees are ready to come back to their alma-mater anytime given a chance in future. Imagine Ivy’s  way of handling the crisis!

Comes the reaction from Ashish Tiwari who was interviewed by HSBC a few days back: "…But I can't disclose the details due to non-disclosure agreement signed by me till having spent one year leaving Ivy." But let’s have some hope for more details. Log on to his blog http://roznamcha.blogspot.com, you may probably get some more updates.

(Techgoss Note:  Ranjan Jain is in charge of HR at IVY.  An MBA from XISS, he was Head- HR for Dr. Reddy’s Drug Discovery Labs before joining IVY as Directory – HR)