BENGALURU: Although many multinational companies such as SAP, Morgan Stanley, Salesforce, Palo Alto Networks, PayPal, Citigroup, JP Morgan, Bank of America and Booz Allen Hamilton, have taken a 90-day no-layoff pledge to protect employees from the economic crisis brought about by the COVID-19 situation. Indians working in Bengaluru’s IT tech parks are staring at salary cuts and layoffs.
Kumaraswamy AC, president of the Information TechnologyEmployees Union, told The New Sunday Express that those who were laid off had been employed on contract.
“Some companies have announced salary cuts of around 30 per cent. Others have given 15-day unpaid leave and the rest have given paid leave.”
Sooraj Nidiyanga, secretary of Karnataka State IT/ITesEmployees Union (KITU) said the Union had received complaints from employees of 11 companies in the city.
“We observed 496 employees were terminated. Hence, we sent the data to the general secretary of our union Tapen Sen, to intervene and address this issue with the Ministry of Labour and Employment,” he told TNIE.
The letter calls the move a violation of the Ministry’s order on March 20 on dos and don’ts by employers of both public and private sector establishments.
“Legal action will be taken against companies under theDisaster Management Act and then the Industrial Disputes Act, in the labour department,” Sooraj told TNSE.
Labour secretary P Manivannan, said the government was yet to receive complaints.
“We are yet to get reports on layoffs. We did not receive many last month but expect to get it this month. I will be reissuing an order on Monday with a strong warning to establishments. However, it will be only for blue-collar workers,” he said.