India’s third-largest IT services company Wipro laid off around 700 employees in various levels under the annual assessment process.

Majority of the sacked employees are from the senior level and have served for over 10 years on the same technology area.

“As per fiscal 2017 Q3 result statement, Wipro has a total headcount of 1,79,129 employees. The company is going to sack at least 5% of the total employees,” said an employee working at an offshore location.

To an email query from DH, a Wipro official said the layoffs are part of an annual process, which involves finding non-performers and people who are on the bench, and clearing them out.

“Wipro undertakes a rigorous performance appraisal process on a regular basis to align its workforce with the business objectives, strategic priorities of the organisation, and requirements of our clients,” the company stated.

“This systematic and comprehensive performance evaluation process triggers a series of actions such as mentoring, retraining and upskilling. The performance appraisal may also lead to the separation of some employees from the company and these numbers vary from year to year,” Wipro stated.

According to analysts, the move comes at a time when the IT sector is facing several headwinds, both high technology adoption like artificial intelligence and machine learning and proposed curbs on worker visa norms by countries like the US, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.