BENGALURU: With new round of layoffs in the software industry, the Forum for IT Employees (FITE) is back in action. In Chennai, they have applied for registration with the Labour Commissioner and Bengalurean representatives say that the next will be here.
“We get 10 calls from different companies everyday,” says Rajesh, a representative of the forum in the city. “On the website we see four to five registrations a day. The main reason is the layoffs, employees have been asked to resign without being given a reason. They are branded underperformers most times, including freshers who have been in the company for only a year. There are not put on a performance improvement plan, which is usually the practice, and are asked to leave with a severance package.”
They call the forum asking for legal help and the members usually offer two solutions. “We ask them to file a complaint with the Labour Commissioner so that the company can be called for a conciliation or we ask them to make a group complaint,” says Rajesh.“During the conciliation if the employees need any legal help, we go with the lawyers or they are free to hire their own lawyers.”
The forum was started as an informal group in 2014 when there was a round of layoffs at Tata Consultancy Services. “After the TCS issue was resolved people were not as active in the forum,” says Rajesh, “in February this year, when another software company started layoffs, people started coming to it once more. The number of calls peaked in April.”
Techies City Express spoke to rarely express an interest in joining such a forum or a union. Most of them think that it would not be useful and could harm their employment prospects later on.
A employee verification officer we spoke to at ICrest, Sharath, says that companies check for political affiliations of employees. “They keep resumes aside if any such link is there,” he says. “I have seen many mid-management employees being rejected for this, despite their qualification and experience.”
Kamlesh from Inspire Consultancy Service says that they would not recommend such a CV to their client. “We find it very risky to refer such people,” he says. “We do assessments to check if a person would be an asset or a liability... unionism may make it difficult for organisations to take quick decisions.”
Rajesh says this is a false notion. “My managers and senior managers know that I am part of this forum and are very encouraging. There is a person from Bengaluru who filed a case against his company and was recruited by another while this case was going on.”
Amit, a software engineer, says that the unions would not work in a tech company. “We are given targets and if we don’t mee them we could be asked to leave, they follow the hire and fire policy. Labour laws need to be changed for a union to have any impact,” he says.
‘It would be pointless’
Another employee, who did not want to be named, says, “We are made to sign a contract that says that their services can be terminated at any point, what is the point of the union then.” There are people who wish that unions would negotiate on their behalf, without revealing their identity. 24-year-old Rekha Sachdev (name changed) says, “My company is employee-friendly but my boss is a problem. I wouldn’t be joining any union, but it would be a relief to have a third party to go to for grievances. Complaining to the HR only tarnishes my image in the firm... if there were a labour union, they could represent my grievances without revealing my identity.”
(Inputs from Niha Sameer, Priyankaa Srinivas and Srisha Paul)