Maytas Infra employees ‘unaffordable’

By M H Ahssan

After Satyam, it is Maytas Infra employees who are out on a frantic job hunt. Confirming this, construction companies in the city say that they have received several resumes in the last two weeks and have also had some candidates from Maytas walk-in for interviews over the weekend. Companies, however, add that they are not willing to entertain Maytas employees at this stage as it is very difficult to match their huge pay packages, especially when the construction sector is confronted with a slump.

“When Maytas Infra recruited people they offered salaries that were almost two times more than the market rate. Now to match such salaries or even offer them anything close to their present packages is just not possible for us,’’ says E Sudhir Reddy, chairman and managing director of IVRCL. His company has received over a dozen resumes from Maytas staff so far but none have been called back for an interview.

That the fear of being handed a pink slip is spreading fast among employees of the Satyam-backed infrastructure company is evident from the news of staffers approaching previous employers and friends in other firms for a job and also agreeing to settle for a pay cut of 10 to 15 per cent.

“But even that is not possible to match at this point,’’ says Ashwin Rao, director with Manbhum Constructions. According to him the pay packages of Maytas Infra staffers, even after a 10-15 per cent cut, are higher than the present market rates. “With a major dip in business due to recession all construction firms are anyway re-negotiating the salaries of their staff. At such a stage to recruit Maytas people, who were given 30-40 per cent hikes, is just not feasible,’’ says Rao adding that the firm had hired people in bulk and offered inflated salaries without considering the person’s market worth. “Someone not worth more than say Rs 10,000-12,000 was offered nothing less than Rs 20,000 by Maytas. Where is the person going to get any offer like that in such bad times,’’ asks Rao.

Aliens Group that has also been approached by a few middle-management staffers of Maytas Infra says that it will be difficult to fit them into the organisation, keeping in mind their salaries. “People who would have otherwise drawn Rs 4-5 lakh were offered anything between Rs 6-8 lakh in Maytas. So the gap is huge and anyway we have almost frozen recruitments,’’ says Prashanth Kumar, assistant manager, HR.

It is for the same reason that P V R Prasad, assistant general manager, HR of Aparna Constructions has also not responded to the handful of queries regarding job openings he received from Maytas employees.

But apart from the problem of pay packages there are also moral glitches that are compelling firms to keep away Maytas staffers. “People who have been with me for years and are drawing much lesser salaries than the ones who quit my organisation to join Maytas will have a problem if I get them back even at salaries similar to theirs. I cannot let my old staff down because there is a huge amount of trust that has been built over years,’’ says Sudhir Reddy.

Authorities digging out info on Satyam, Maytas land in RR dist: A perusal of transactions by the stamps and registrations department in the neighbouring Ranga Reddy district has revealed that several transactions were made in eight sub-registrar offices in Ranga Reddy district by Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties in the last one year. The most number of transactions were done in Qutubullapur and Medchal sub-registrar offices.

While Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties has at least 3,000 acres in Ranga Reddy district, revenue authorities, who have also begun gathering information, said Satyam ex-chairman B Ramalinga Raju and his family members hold nearly 658 acres land in Qutubullapur mandal alone. This includes the land being suspected to be held on benami names.

With the Centre deciding to inquire into Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties activities, the stamps and registration department has asked the district registrars of the Ranga Reddy district to collect details of the transactions made in the name of Maytas firms in the last few years.

The authorities of the registration department reportedly gave oral orders to all the district registrars in the state to dig out information on Maytas properties, on Monday. Special emphasis is being given to Ranga Reddy district as the Maytas Infra and Properties holds more than half of its land bank of 6,800 acres in Ranga Reddy district.

Sources said the information is being collected from the 31 sub-registrar offices located in the district. A large number of transactions were found in the areas like Qutubullapur, Medchal, Ibrahimpatnam, Manchal, Serilingampally and Shamshabad. “But no transactions or land dealings were found in Rajendranagar, Tandur and Vikarabad areas so far,” an official said.

The entire exercise of collecting details on land transactions made by Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties in Ranga Reddy district will be completed by Wednesday, an official said.

Meanwhile, the revenue authorities of Ranga Reddy district have collected details of land holdings of Satyam, Maytas and Ramalinga Raju family. “As hundreds of acres of land is on the names of ‘Rajus’, the officials are inquiring whether the land owners are original or benami for the Ramalinga Raju family,’’ an official of RR district said.

The information on land holdings is also being collected from village revenue officers and revenue inspectors who worked in the important mandals three years ago.