HYDERABAD: Around 30 cases of alleged indiscriminate layoffs have been recorded in the IT sector in Hyderabad in the last few weeks. A few companies have cited revenue loss due to the lockdown as a reason for the same and have not been adhering to contractual terms. Given this, the State government has formed a special committee, including the officials of the IT and Labour Department, to look into such complaints.
Satish Chandra Chennu is one such employee, who was laid off by an IT company based at Madhapur. The firm, in its termination letter, said, “This is to inform that your LWD (last working day) would be April 30, 2020. However, we are still working what best we can do, but there is no guarantee what we can offer. **** terminated its contract with **** for indefinite timeframe due to which we had to let you go. At the same time, we had heavy losses and other project(s) went back in last few months in Services division (sic).
We tried to place you in product support team, unfortunately your skills were not matching to the expectation.” The Begumpet resident was working as a senior software engineer at the firm for the last two-and-a-half years and was taking home a hefty salary of `10 lakh per annum. Speaking to Express, the techie said, “The US-based client with whom I was working on a project terminated it as they were facing problems due to the lockdown. Although I was promised a new project by my company, they renegaded on it.” He added, “On April 15, the company asked me to send an updated resume, saying that they may shift me to the product support team since there was a vacancy.
However, after two days, I was informed that I was being laid off.” The company allegedly told him that they would be paying him for only 17 days of work till April 30. Despite several requests from Satish, the company did not adhere to the two-month notice period, which he said was mentioned in his appointment letter. A native of Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh, the techie lives with his wife and his nine-month-old baby in the city.
Now with the loss of job, his medical insurance, which covers his entire family, may lapse. “I asked them to at least let me serve my notice period, so that I could search for a new job. However, they did not give me any option.” Satish approached the IT and Industries Minister, KT Rama Rao, and IT Secretary Jayesh Ranjan, and in response, he was contacted by the representatives of the State’s Labour Department. There are a myriad other such cases in the city and the State government’s Industry Department has come forward to look into the matter by forming a committee. When contacted, Jayesh Ranjan said, “We have received complaints and have formed a committee. Each and every case is being looked into.” He said the preliminary enquiry showed that not every case was related to the lockdown.