All the 10,000 surplus employees of Satyam Computer, who fearedunemployment, can breathe easy now as the company's new owner Tech Mahindra onThursday said there will be "no retrenchment".

The surplus employees would be put in a separate pool and would be paid basicsalary, provident fund and medical insurance, and at a later stage if theystill needed a job they would be considered for employment, Tech Mahindra CEOVineet Nayyar said after the board meeting here.

"Surplus employees is a cause of concern and the whole IT industry isfacing the same problem. We have spent lots of money on training our employeesand they are an asset. We are not going to retrench them but we will create avirtual pool and they will be put into that," he said.

The government had recently said that it would not turn a blind eye to layoffsin Satyam but the corporate affairs minister Salman Khursheed had clarifiedthat the decision rested with the company board, which, according to him, wasresponsible and sensitive.

The speculation about a massive layoff had started after Nayyar last monthpointed to the surplus staff of 10,000 and expressed concerns over extra flabin the company, which recorded a meagre profit in January this year butimproved the bottom line to Rs 51 crore in February.

Tech Mahindra, the IT arm of multi billion dollars conglomerate Mahindra andMahindra, acquired strategic 31 per cent stake in Satyam for which thegovernment-appointed board had invited bids for salvaging the IT giant reelingunder an estimated Rs 10,000 crore financial fraud.

Nayyar said that during the period in virtual pool the employees can do socialwork and can look for a job and they can be called back when required as regularemployees, he added.

Asked whether company has identified surplus employees, he said, "Yes. Wehave identified about 10,000 non-billable (those who are on the bench for thelast six months)."