IT sector exempted from Indl Employment Act

The state government has exempted the IT/ITes sector from the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act for another five years.

The Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act regulates terms of employment including termination, misconduct, wages, holidays, and so on. But the IT industry has argued that the Act was meant for traditional industrial sectors.

The exemption will cover IT/IT services, startups, animation, gaming, computer graphics, telecom, BPO, KPO and others, according to a notification issued by the Labour department. The last time the IT and the allied sectors received an exemption was in January 2014 for a period of five years.

The exemption, however, is subject to conditions such as establishment of an internal committee to deal with sexual harassment, a grievance redressal committee, intimating the Labour department about disciplinary action such as suspension, termination, dismissal, demotion and the readiness to furnish details on service condition of employees.