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Pentamedia sacks 107 staff, some protest

Indian animation software company Pentamedia Graphics Ltd said on Tuesday it has asked 107 creative professionals to leave for "underperformance" but that some were protesting against the decision.

"Of the 107 people who were asked to leave because of underperformance last Friday, about 51 tendered their resignations immediately but another group of over 45 people are protesting the move," a company spokeswoman said.

She said those protesting were demanding a minimum of three to four months as notice or salary for an equal period as compensation.

"Most of these people are not willing to agree that they have underperformed, which we have proved using tools like 'Prowatch' which monitor their daily output," she said.

"Also their contracts clearly state that while under probation they are entitled to only one month's notice and that is all that we are looking at paying."

Pentamedia said the sacked staff had been working with the company for periods ranging between seven to eighteen months and were drawn from various creative divisions such as 2D, 3D and Games. The company had a total of 1,500 creative professionals.

But a representative for the sacked employees, who declined to be named, said over 80 professionals were protesting the "sudden" sacking. He said they were also demanding compensation for training fees paid to the company, at the time of joining.

"Most of us paid between Rs 45,000 and Rs 90,000 for the training, depending on the area of work, when we joined. So now we want compensation of at least Rs 100,000 as we have not been paid a month's salary as well."

The Pentamedia spokeswoman acknowledged there had been a cash-flow problem in recent months, especially with debtor payments, but added that all employees had been paid their salaries.

"We are experiencing some problems with debtor payments and since we have future projects tied up with them, sometimes it is quite suffocating. But we have Rs 1.27 billion of cash as fixed deposits right now, so it cannot be called a cash crunch.

The company had Rs 2.48 billion in cash as on March 31.

She said that the company was still in talks with the protestors and hoped to reach a settlement in a couple of days.

Pentamedia shares were down almost 12 per cent at Rs 26.10 on Tuesday afternoon, while the Sensex was down 0.55 per cent.

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