CHENNAI: The newly-formed IT Employees Wing of the New Democratic Labour Front (NDLF) on Monday alleged that the US-based software firm Syntel has laid off nearly 1,000 of its employees across India by forcing them to hand in their resignations. However, the company has denied the allegations calling the numbers factually incorrect, while admitting that a “few who have not performed up to the expectations were released” following a routine annual evaluation.
According to NDLF-IT Employees Wing, formed following the uproar over lay- offs in IT giant TCS, yet another IT firm has begun laying off its employees. “We have come to know that Syntel, with offices in Chennai, Mumbai, Pune etc, has begun laying off employees. We have learnt that over a 1,000 employees, nearly 300 from Chennai, have been fired and the company has forced them to turn in their resignations,” said S Karpagavinayagam, Organiser of the Wing. He went on to allege that the firm was planning to let go off more employees, nearly 3,000. However, the NDLF said no employee has come forward to make his grievances public.
When contacted, Syntel replied that the claims made by NDLF and the numbers quoted by them were not factual. The only people who have been let go off were those not performing to standards expected by the company. “As part of Syntel’s annual evaluation process, a few employees who have not performed to these expectations were released.
The numbers reported are speculative and do not represent facts on the ground,” said Syntel. Syntel, however did not comment on the actual number of employees laid off following the annual evaluation.
The NDLF has said that the absence of any employees willing to come forward with greviences was due to the fact that the application of the Industrial Disputes Act for IT is a grey area.
“The Madras High Court issued an order to the Tamil Nadu government to take a policy decision on our petition demanding implementation of Industrial Disputes Act in IT sector.
“We demand that Tamil Nadu government should take immediate action this and bring IT companies under ID Act,” said Karpagavinayagam.