No calls from HR, no access to devices: AI company Innodata lays off nearly 550 Indians post lunch break
Nearly 550 employees of Innodata India Pvt Ltd have reportedly been laid off. The news came post-lunch hours when affected employees in India lost access to their devices, including laptops, and found their official IDs deactivated. Several posts on X claim that the mass job cut took place on October 26.
Reportedly, workers in the Philippines have also been affected by the layoff. It seemingly included job roles across raters, quality experts, team leaders and managers, who were fired over a Zoom meeting.
Some employees said that they found October 26 marked as their resignation date on the company's HR payroll system. Reportedly, even managers remained unaware of the job cut. Subsequently, termination emails were received by the fired employees at their personal email addresses.
Going by a social media post, the email read, "This is to formally inform you that, due to the ramp-down of the business assignment for which you were engaged, the Company has decided to discontinue your employment with Innodata India Pvt. Ltd., effective 26 October 2026, which will be your last working day.”
Meanwhile, India Today quoted an unnamed employee saying, "One by one, we started losing access to our official devices. Laptops were logged out, and official IDs deactivated.”
As mentioned in the viral termination letter, the reason behind the move is said to be due to operational requirements and not individual performance. The final settlements of the employees would be processed after the return of the company's assets, it added.
"It started as a usual Monday morning, with all of us logging in and recording our attendance before starting our daily work. And it continued just like it usually does, all hectic and chaotic up until lunch time,” an affected employee told the publication.
“We frantically reached out to our managers, who were also taken aback at the news,” the unnamed said, adding, "And while we were texting our HR team about the 'rumour', one by one we started losing access to our official devices. Laptops were logged out, and official IDs deactivated."
"There have been no calls from HR, and we didn't receive the chance to even download our payslips and other important documents, as even the access to the HR payroll app was revoked."
Innodata is a US-based data engineering and artificial intelligence services company. Headquartered in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey, the company listed organisations such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Sony, Hewlett-Packard, Snowflake, Boeing and Deloitte as its clients. The company recorded 10,107 employees across the world as of December 31, 2025.
The company has not yet reacted to the viral claims of the employees.
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