CHENNAI: Members of the Forum for IT employees (FITE) claimed that representatives from Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTS) did not meet employees who were allegedly forced to resign, during the third round of talks facilitated by the Labour Commission on Wednesday.
“Representatives from CTS had met the officers concerned ahead of the scheduled time and reiterated their stance that the resignations were of the employees’ own accord. They did not meet us directly today,” said Vasumathi, vice-president of FITE. She added that the organisation’s representatives did not turn up for the second round of talks, saying that they only met the former employees once during the first conciliation meet held earlier this month.
The forum had submitted a petition at the Labour Commission after which three rounds of conciliation meets were facilitated so far.
At the end of the meeting with the Joint Commissioner (Labour), members of FITE said employees who have not yet turned in their resignations after being verbally demanded by the company, must refrain from doing so. According to the forum’s estimates, around 17,000 employees have been laid off all over the country by the MNC.
“They are giving reasons such as poor performance, but it’s unacceptable since a person at the meeting today had a third bucket rating and was still asked to quit when the lowest is a fourth bucket rating.” She added that the company also had Performance Improvement Plans (PIP) in place.
The members also said a severance pay should be offered to employees affected, adding they were also looking to take the legal route ahead.