HYDERABAD:Employees of Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTS) and representatives of Forum For IT Employees (FITE), a collective which works for the welfare of IT employees, approached the labour department on Tuesday with a petition on the issue of thousands of CTS employees terminated “illegally”.
The employees, in a press release, said that nowadays IT companies, with a profit motive, are replacing highly-paid experienced employees with new recruits who are paid less, thus leading to illegal layoffs.
Each company quotes different reasons for the layoffs, including an employee’s performance or need to streamline in order to meet customer demands, the release stated.
Pointing specifically to Cognizant, one of the IT giants, the release alleged that it is illegally terminating thousands of employees by forcing them to submit their resignations. It is not a few thousands of employees who are affected, but thousands of families, the release further said. The Forum sought departmental intervention and submitted a petition to the Telangana Labour department on Tuesday. “Yes, we received the petition and we have called for a meeting on Thursday. We will hold a meeting with employees from CTS and also the Forum to discuss and understand the problems. We will then conduct an inquiry and take action,” informed R Chandrashekar, joint commissioner, Rangareddy zone, department of Labour. ‘Analysis of employees’ profiles necessary’
Speaking on the issue, Kiran Chandra, senior leader of BJP’s IT cell, and a senior executive in an IT firm, said the current trend across industries required people to upgrade their skill set as automation was taking over manual jobs.
“I cannot comment on the specific case in point here, as I do not have information on the company. However, there is a requirement for newer skill sets in the industry. People who can upgrade themselves will survive. There is a reduced demand in certain traditional skill sets like testing while an improvement in skills addressing interconnected areas like automation, machine learning and artificial intelligence,” Chandra added.
Companies must provide enough opportunities to staff to re-train themselves, he said.
Also, proper procedures need to be followed and analysis of employees’ profiles is necessary before laying them off, he added.
Pink slips back to haunt techies
Several technology companies are looking to layoff sizeable chunks of employees this financial year. Though none of the companies have confirmed the sacking of staff, here’s what reports claim...
Infosys
1,000 employees
The company has only said that bi-annual performance assessments are routine. However, estimates are that employees at levels of project managers, senior architects and higher levels could lose jobs
Wipro
600 employees
Tata Teleservices
500+ employees
Cognizant
6,000 employees
While the company has denied any retrenchment process, reports claim around 2.3% of the workforce could face the axe this year. VRS scheme has been announced for senior/mid-level professionals
Snapdeal
30% Of workforce (around 1,000)
CapGemini
9,000 According to reports. Company has denied layoffs