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IT workers' forum to intensify protest

Last Updated 25 May 2017, 17:28 IST

 IT workers’ unions have decided to intensify their protest against anti-employee measures of companies by holding protest marches in selected cities soon.

The Forum for Information Technology Employees (FITE) and New Democratic Labour Front (NDLF) have made it clear that neither IT companies nor the government have come to the rescue of affected employees.
FITE General Secretary AJ Vinod said around 50,000 to 60,000 employees are affected by the recent acts of Indian and multi-national IT companies.

“There is a concerted effort on the part of the management of these companies to kick out employees without any solid reason. We want them to come up with corrective measures and if not, we will hold protest march across Indian IT cities within 10 days,” he said.

Vinod said IT companies’ decision has really pushed the life of techies in disarray as they have to pay for their EMIs and run the family. “It is not easy to stay in Indian cities with family. And the decision of these IT companies has really thrown a spanner in their plans,” he said.

India’s IT industry is worth $150-billion and it contributes about 7% of Indian GDP. It employes four million professionals and indirectly generates many more jobs across Indian cities like Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Mumabi, New Delhi, Noida, Kochi, and Thiruvananthapuram, among others. FITE has already approached the labour commission in Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune. “We have approached the authorities to stop illegal termination happening at Cognizant campuses,” he said.

In a related development, Cognizant has stated that it has offered employee separation package in India and the US for the first time. The company’s voluntary separation programme for directors, associate vice presidents and senior VPs, offer six to nine months of salary.

After the Hyderabad meeting on May 11, Cognizant had sought two weeks’ time from the Telangana labour department to come up with a reply on the said issue.

IT workers in India’s biggest tech hub Bengaluru haven’t approached the state government with a complaint on layoffs.  IT & BT Minister Priyank Kharge told DH that the state government is yet to get a formal complaint from workers.

“If we receive any complaint, we are ready to take it up within the framework of state labour law. But there is a limitation for that also,” he said.

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(Published 25 May 2017, 17:28 IST)

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