MUMBAI: Leading players in the IT sector have expressed their disappointment and concern over a recent clarification issued by the government of Tamil Nadu stating that software employees are free to form trade unions and the IT industry is bound by all labour laws that govern other industries. While the industry body Nasscom played down the development saying that the government has just clarified the existing law, industry veteran and former chief financial officer of Infosys Technologies, T.V. Mohandas Pai, said the development will have an adverse impact on the industry.
“This is definitely bad for the state of Tamil Nadu. These antiquated laws were meant for the nineteenth century. They are no longer relevant for the digital century. This will seriously hurt emplo-yment generation for the next four to five years,” Mr Pai said and added that any new software firm planning to set up shop in India would prefer cities like Hyderabad or Benga-luru to Chennai.
“My only request to the government is not to hurt job creation and growth through such antiquated and archaic laws,” he said. The government clarification came in response to a petition filed by the New Democratic Labour Front — IT Employees wing (NDLF). Following the alleged illegal laying off of about 25,000 employees by Tata Consultancy Services in January 2015, NDLF filed a petition with the labour department and later filed a public interest litigation (PIL) before the Madras High Court.
However Nasscom is of the opinion that the latest clarification is just a reiteration of the applicable laws to the industry. “This notification is a clarification issued by the secretary following the High Court Order and is not a new legislation. The IT industry is in compliance with applicable provisions. Our initial discussions with the members indicate while the legislation is not new, it will be important to understand changes, if any to the implementation process,” Nasscom said. It said that the IT-ITeS sector is undisputedly an employer of choice for the youth in the country and has created 3.5 million direct and 10 million indirect jobs.
