Hyderabad: With increasing incidents of lay-offs, discontent among IT employees over the state government’s lopsided IT policy is growing. A group of IT professionals approached the labour commissioner recently to intervene in the issue. Meanwhile, two employees who were handed pink slips by Wipro are fighting a case and have challenged the previous IT policy.
Employees’ associations are demanding that the state introduce measures to take care of the employees and do away with the free hand given to the companies. Now, the Republican Party of India, AP and TS state wings, have come forward in support of the IT employees of TCS. “Two days back, one of my senior colleagues was handed a pink slip. This despite getting a high performance rating throughout the seven years of his career. The pink slip says he was terminated for poor performance. With this kind of a letter, will this man even get another job? These companies are ensuring that the terminated employees don’t get another job and the state government is doing nothing,” said Sriharsha, a software professional.
The IT Policy of AP, 2005, gives no protection to the employees and this policy has been adopted by both the new states in forming their new IT policies. Although IT policies of most states are lopsided in favour of companies to attract investments, the IT policy of Karnataka provides protection to the employees, unlike the policies of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. In an earlier case in Bengaluru, a company had to take back an employee retrenched arbitrarily. In another case in Chennai, the court had intervened and given a stay. In AP, however, cases are continuing without any result, the latest being two cases involving the two Wipro employees and a TCS employee.
“As per IT Act of AP, 2005, employees who are removed arbitrarily cannot have any statutory protection (under any Act, Rules and cannot approach any court of law). Normally, in such cases, an employee can approach the court and can seek protection under the Labour Law. But the IT policy of AP, as well as the new IT policies of both states, have put the employees under a deliberate disadvantage,” said former additional advocate general A. Satya Prasad who is fighting the case of Wipro employees Ravi Chandran and Sanjay Chary.
“We have been asking for a governing council to be set up by the IT department so that employees having any issues can approach the body and the state government can intervene. Currently, employees cannot approach anyone and if they go to the Labour department, it reflects as a red mark on their career. As a result, employees are keeping quiet and signing the resignation letters. The state must make changes in the policy because investments and protection of company interests alone is not enough. The state must protect the employees too,” said president of Telangana IT Association (TITA) Sundeep Kumar Makthala.
