No hartal for IT employees in Kerala
The worst affected were women employees without private vehicles
KOZHIKODE: The techies working in the IT companies here did not have the luxury of taking a day off on Friday during the all-India trade union strike as they had to meet the deadlines charted by their clients from abroad. The techies were directed by the employers to report for duty as usual as the clients hardly cared about the strike. More than 150 IT companies in various parts of the city, including Hilite Business Park, Government Cyber Park and Uralungal Cyber Park, functioned normally, though the employees faced a hard time to reach the offices on time.
The worst affected were women employees without private vehicles, who had to take the help of relatives, catch the train or resort to other means to go to the offices. “Since we work for the London company and our major clients are from the United States and United Kingdom, we are given special deadlines. Hence, to work on the hartal day was the only option left though the hartal supporters wanted us to strike,” said Vishnudath Kuniyil, a software engineer with ‘Acodez’ company.
The women staff were provided transportation after office hours, he added. It was embarrassing to go to office on a hartal day, as the day is meant for an off, he added. A.G. Aliriza, CEO of Flew Up company here and member of Calicut Forum for Information Technology, said that the IT companies functioned in other parts of the state, including Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram. “Hence we decided to be at office,” he added.