BENGALURU: AS India’s software giants witness mass layoffs over the past few months, techies in IT hub Bengaluru have begun knocking on the doors of the Labour Commissioner. Over the past one month, more than 200 professionals who have been sacked from various IT companies have filed petitions before the commissioner, seeking legal redressal.
The labour department, in turn, has issued notices to some employers seeking explanation for what petitioners say are “illegal terminations”.
According to Information Technology Employees Union President Kumaraswamy AC, over 5,000 people have lost their jobs in IT firms in Karnataka in the past couple of months. He said they met IT Minister Priyank Kharge in this regard
but with little action on the ground, they decided to approach the labour department.
“In one month, more than 200 individuals filed the petition under section 2A of Industrial Disputes Act. Labour department has issued notices to the companies and hearing is expected to start from next week,’’ he said.
Section 2A of the Act states that if an employer retrenches a workman, any dispute between the two arising out of this termination of service will be deemed as an industrial dispute.Labour department officials have confirmed that the number of petitions from techies has been on the rise.
“As part of the process, we have to hear the other party’s explanations. We have sent notices to many IT companies, including Wipro, Tech Mahindra, Cognizant, Capgemini and others,’’ a senior official said.
Incidentally, while the government has been stressing that IT and ITES firms are exempted from Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, a notification issued by the Labour Department Under Secretary in 2014 specifically says that an employer has to inform the concerned Deputy Labour Commissioner or Labour Commissioner about the termination. R R Jannu, Labour Commissioner, too admitted that the notification is still valid.
“These companies should inform our officials when they lay off employees. But they do not comply,” he said. When asked what action the department can take against such employers, he said there is no such provision in the notification.
IT employee unions to protest at Freedom Park on Aug 5
IT employee unions have called for a protest on August 5 at Freedom Park. “We will meet the concerned ministers and submit our memorandum. We are also waiting for our petitions to be heard in Labour department next week. If we do not get a satisfactory answer, we are going to High court filing a public interest litigation,’’ said Kumaraswamy AC, Information Technology Employees Union president.