HYDERABAD: What governance reforms can the average urban voter expect from these political parties? The Congress has promised to install special ‘traffic and signal’ management systems to ease traffic congestion in cities, create a skill development committee to ‘up-skill’ techies with over 15 years of service and increase severance pay of retrenched employees to an equivalent of three months’ salary. The BJP, for its part, has promised to form a welfare board to address work concerns & set up yoga centres in IT corridors.
For women, while the Congress has assured that it would convince tech firms to avoid night shifts, BJP has assured to look into their safety. Surprisingly, apart from an assurance to create an IT corridor on the east zone of GHMC, the TRS has not made any promises to techies.
Though the list sounds impressive, it stops woefully short of addressing the most pressing issue in the sector — unethical and unfair labour practices. Many workers say such practices are rampant in Hyderabad. Even on Monday, four techies working with Wipro approached to Labour Department complaining of workplace harassment. Last year, 55 staff members of Verizon Data Services were retrenched. Experts say the biggest need from political parties is to strengthen the labour department.