Cairn cuts workforce by 300 as virus hits oil prices

Cairn Oil & Gas has trimmed its workforce by about 300, nearly a fifth of its employees, primarily by laying off people as low oil prices hit India’s largest private oil producer.

Cairn, a unit of mining baron Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta, laid off hundreds of employees in the last week of June, mostly from non-critical functions, according to people with knowledge of the matter. This has brought down Cairn’s employees count to 1,400 from 1,700 previously, they said.

“Cairn Oil & Gas, Vedanta Ltd follows a robust performance management system and made the humane choice of delaying appraisal cycles and related exits due to the untenable situation caused by the pandemic.