Kochi: Days after the mass layoffs at US-based medical coding firm CorroHealth Infotech in Kerala, the state’s labour sector has suffered another setback. Kochi-based ecosystem development company Talrop has shut down 21 of its companies across Kerala, leaving more than 300 employees without jobs and awaiting salary payments pending for four to 11 months.

Employees staged a protest march to the company’s headquarters at Thrikkakara on Saturday, demanding that the management immediately clear their pending salaries. The protest came a day after Talrop announced on its official Instagram page that it was shutting down its ecosystem operations.

In its statement, the company said it had decided to shut down its ₹250-crore ecosystem company as part of a strategic transition driven by the rapid rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

“After more than a decade of building our ecosystem, we have made the strategic decision to completely shut down our ₹250 crore ecosystem company. Operating the ecosystem at its previous scale demanded an annual burn of nearly ₹100 crore. The next stage of our journey requires long-term institutional execution. To build globally at scale, we are transitioning from a community-driven operating model to an institution-driven one. The ecosystem phase was our launchpad. The institution phase is our future. Welcome to Talrop 7.0,” the company said.

The company also said it had fulfilled its mission of building a strong foundation for innovation, entrepreneurship, technology and community development, adding that its earlier ecosystem model “was not built for the AI era”.

However, employees alleged that the company had failed to pay salaries for months and abandoned its workforce.

Mohammed Ashraf, an employee who said he has not received his salary for the last 11 months, alleged that Talrop shut down 38 of its offices, known as Village Parks, across Kerala without addressing employees' dues. 

He said the company, which had projected itself as a platform to transform Kerala into a Silicon Valley, later shifted its focus to Built-Operate-Transfer (BOT) projects after relying heavily on external investments. According to him, salary dues are pending even for employees working at the company’s Dubai office.

A former employee, who resigned in December and is yet to receive 10 months’ salary, said the company failed to honour repeated promises to clear her dues. “I had approached the management during my father’s medical emergency, hoping the pending salary would be released, but eventually resigned after receiving no payment. The company has also stopped responding to complaints filed before the labour department,” she said.

According to Talrop’s website, the company operates on a BOT model, providing end-to-end execution for governments, universities, corporates, individuals and non-profit organisations.

Its website states, “You provide the vision and the BOT fee. We take over the complete end-to-end execution — securing land, executing the physical build, raising capital, running daily operations, driving marketing, and managing the entire ecosystem until a fully functional and profitable asset is ready for transfer.”

The company lists Techies Parks, Inventor Parks, Village Parks, Skill Parks, Healthcare Malls and Child Development Centres among its BOT projects.

Responding to the protests, a Talrop spokesperson described the shutdown of its ecosystem companies as temporary. The spokesperson attributed the financial crisis to the transition towards AI and the outbreak of war in West Asia.

“We are committed to paying pending salaries and compensations before October, as communicated to employees. While the ecosystem vertical remains closed, we are now focusing on BOT-based real estate and infrastructure projects. We admit there are considerable dues, but we have never said we will not pay them. We are also cooperating with the labour department,” the spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, employees have approached labour offices in Ernakulam, Thiruvananthapuram and Kannur over the unpaid salaries.

Ernakulam District Labour Officer Minoy James said the department initially received only a few complaints, and the company had settled those dues after being directed to do so.

Initially, the department received a few complaints here and the company cleared them at the officials’ direction. Later, when claims soared, the company stopped responding. “We asked aggrieved employees to file claim petitions in the labour court, which is the procedure in such cases,” James said.