Australian tech and health company lay off hundreds of staff

A healthcare company has cut hundreds of jobs, as has a tech firm, with a global recession looming.

Two Australian companies have laid off hundreds of staff members as tough market conditions continue to hit business hard.

ASX-listed healthcare company Healius has cut 500 full-time roles since the Covid-19 pandemic started.

That represents 13 per cent of the company out of its original workforce of 6500.

Then last week, a software firm called Thoughtworks, with offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, became the latest casualty of the “tech wreck”, laying off 100 employees.

The redundancies were a four per cent reduction to the company’s total number of staff.

It comes as companies across almost all industries have had to cut back on workers as a recession looms amid rising interest rates, out of control inflation and difficult market conditions for businesses to flourish.

Healius now has the amount of staff it did in 2019.

Healius, which offers pathology and imaging services, confirmed to news.com.au that their workforce now resembled the same headcount it had in 2019, prior to the pandemic.

A spokesperson said the 13 per cent reduction was a combination of “natural attrition and redundancies”.

Most of the roles that have been dropped were support and back office roles, which has now turned into a “more efficient” operation.

Staff have been offered severance packages “where applicable”.

“Healius also continues to invest in frontline staff at pathology and imaging sites to enable growth and to service the demand for diagnostic testing which is having a resurgence since the end of the pandemic,” they added.

The health company released its interim results last week which showed it had racked iup losses of $28.7 million in the first half of the current financial year.

Its half-year profit stood at $8.1 million – a significant plunge from the year before, of $244 million.

Meanwhile, The Australian reported that the regional boss of software firm Thoughtworks notified staff of the cuts in a company-wide letter.

Healius is ASX-listed but reported less than ideal interim results.

Regional managing director Kristan Vingrys wrote that Thoughtworks had “not seen the improvement we need” in the last six months, causing them to decide to lay off staff.

“Unfortunately, given the changes of our operational requirements, your job is one of those that we believe are no longer required for the business, and we are considering making your job redundant,” the letter reads. “Based on the information we have now, we cannot find a suitable redeployment opportunity for you, but will discuss this further with you during a consultation meeting.”

Mr Vingrys described the announcement as “upsetting and difficult” and added that it was “not an easy decision to make”.

The cuts have reportedly mostly impacted newly-hired university graduates.

news.com.au has contacted Thoughtworks for comment.

Thoughtworks employs thousands of people across Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne.

In the past six months, Australia’s tech, finance and health care industries have been caught in the throes of a crisis as tough market conditions bite.

Another software development company, Kinde, laid off 28.5 per cent of staff at the end of last month.

Also in February, comparison website Finder.com.au laid off or restructured 15 per cent of its workforce.

An Australian social media start-up called Linktree that was recently valued at $1.78 billion sacked 17 per cent of staff from its global operations.

Then there was Australian healthcare start-up Eucalyptus that provides treatments for obesity, acne and erectile dysfunction, which fired up to 20 per cent of staff after an investment firm pulled its funding at the last minute.

Debt collection start-up Indebted let go of 40 of its employees just before the end of the financial year, despite its valuation soaring to more than $200 million, with most of the redundancies made across sales and marketing.

The growing list of redundancies also included Australian buy now, pay later provider Brighte, that offers money for home improvements and solar power, which let go of 15 per cent of its staff in June, and another BNPL called BizPay which made 30 per cent of its workforce redundant.

On Thursday, news.com.au also revealed that tech service provider Diverse Services (WA) also let go of its entire workforce when the company collapsed into liquidation.

Originally published as Australian tech and health company lay off hundreds of staff