American Express asks 200 Indian employees to quit

NEW DELHI: Leading US credit card company American Express has started downsizing its Indian workforce and is presumed to have handed over pink slips to about 200 employees and senior executives as part of its global strategy.
    
The management of India operations has started issuing notices to its employees, mainly in the back offices in Delhi and Bangalore, industry sources said.
    
Incidentally, the reports of downsizing the workforce in American Express comes on a day when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asked India Inc to "refrain from large-scale lay-offs".
    
When asked if the company had sacked about 200 of its employees and senior executives, the American Express India spokesperson did not give details.
    
The company, however, said in a statement that "reduction will occur throughout the company and across business units, markets and staff groups, primarily  focussing on management and other positions that do not interact directly with customers".