COIMBATORE: The 'cloud' technology seems to have darkened the horizon for the IT sector in Coimbatore, with 10 per cent of the workforce from both big and small companies been given pink slips.
There are more than 100 IT companies across the district, such as Bosch, Cognizant, Payoda, Schuf, Cameron, KGISL and Zf, that employ more than 50,000 people. Their campuses are spread across the special economic zones.
Workers in the sector say the job crisis is due to lack of projects, while the owners attribute it to the evolution of “cloud technology”.Former convener of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) IT panel and Coimbatore Management Association (CMA) president S Prasanth told TNIE, “At present, the IT sector is in a downward trend. This is due to the evolution of the sector. Previously, most of the IT companies were doing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation work. Now SAP, Microsoft and Oracle use “cloud data”. Soon, automation and Artificial Intelligence will also play a major role in the coming years, he added.
An official from NASSCOM on condition of anonymity, also confirmed that there is a job crisis. “Overall from an IT perspective the industry has been one of the biggest recruiters previously and it will be the same this year also.’’ Moreover, the centre’s concerted effort to push for electric vehicles has put the IT industry providing backend software support for conventional automobiles in reverse gear.
An employee of a private IT company associated with the automobile sector told TNIE, “Many workers are being sent home as projects have come down. Those who earn more than Rs 1.5 lakh per month fear they might be fired as they get work for 15 days in a month as our company is related to designing automobile components. There are 7,000 direct employees and 2,000 workers under contract basis working in my IT company.”
The employee added: “Due to the shortage of projects, our highly-paid colleagues are given provision to work from home. Moreover, the IT companies are preferring to sign up freshers on contract with a lower salary,” he added. Sources also said cheap labour in East Asia and not the heat of the slowdown has melted the jobs in this sector. Former convener of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)-IT Panel, S.
Prasanth, told TNIE, “Previously labour cost was cheaper in India. Now many countries, especially in East Asia, have started becoming low-cost destinations. For example, the BPO industry is moving to Philippines as people there are competent and speak good English. And labour is cheaper.”
The thrust on automation is said to be another cause for bleeding the employees dry. Rathinam Tech Zone and SEZ (Special Economic Zone) managing director Madhan A Senthil told TNIE, ‘’There are 25 IT companies in our premises, with 3,000-strong workforce. At present, technology change and automation are playing a vital role for making an impact on the IT sector.
The employees, who are not aware of the latest technology, are being sent out. The slowdown could also be reflecting in this sector as many IT companies have shelved their expansion plans. If this trend continues, there will be more job losses.”
An IT worker, who was laid off recently, said, “The industry is trying to get job done by a fresher after training him/her for three months. I worked for a big IT company for eight years. Recently, I was sent out due to the shortage of projects. I was paid without work for three months and sent out.”
Today, a number of IT employees punch their access card with trepidation, waiting for the machine to tell them whether their swipe is still valid.