HYDERABAD: A year after unprecedented retrenchments rocked the city, the yet to be launched trade union by the Forum of IT professionals (ForIT) has decided to take up the variable pay mechanism employed by MNCs. Though layoffs have been a primary concern for the city-based techies, many have raised their concern regarding the variable pay offered by the IT firms.
While companies inform a new recruit about the concept of variable pay, which is paid to an employee based on either individual performance, company performance or even both, many observe that the firms do not pay the promised amount making it difficult for the techies to make personal financial decisions.
K Madhan, a software engineer who works with a homegrown tech giant in the city, gets an annual package of Rs 6 lakh. He should ideally get Rs 50,000 per month, however, he takes home Rs 37,000 per month. Reason: variable pay.
“We pay tax on the entire salary but when it comes to payment of variable pay, it is given only to the tune of 80-90 per cent. The fact that variable amount is not paid on time and the interest which accumulates on such amount stays with the company is unfair,” he said. The IT firm, in which Madhan currently works, gives variable pay on a quarterly basis.
“The concept of variable pay is unregulated as of now. Whatever an employee gets is through an arbitrary decision of the company and that should be regularised,” said Praveen Chandrahas,a member of ForIT. “We will be demanding the government for inclusion of such provisions through our IT manifesto and we will fight for it through our trade union,” he added. Express had earlier reported that the forum of techies have announced the launch of the trade union on May 26.
Reduced pay hikes
Meanwhile, a lot of tech professionals are also plagued with a paltry per cent of pay hikes in the present financial year. Attributing such trend to the changing outlook of the technological changes, several MNCs have kept their hikes low. The recent outcry of employees of Capgemini Technology Services India Limited getting a pay hike of 0-0.5 per cent has brought to light how tech professionals are made to settle with no hikes amid growing inflation.