Bengaluru: Members of the Forum for IT Employees (FITE) on Monday strongly urged the government to instruct IT companies to “stop arbitrary layoffs and insist that the practice of forced resignations ends.”
FITE members told Karnataka IT Minister Priyank Kharge that they were receiving hundreds of calls from distressed employees across the country, fearing layoffs and hostile situation at the workplace.
The petition urged the government to hold companies responsible for destroying jobs. “The government should strongly recommend that focus on retraining and increase upskilling efforts instead of laying off employees,” it said.
In the petition, FITE employees state: “Forum for IT Employees deeply concerned about the situation in the IT industry. Industry representatives have publicly discussed their new business strategies. They have openly talked about their intention to drastically shrink the size of companies.”
The petition slammed the IT companies for justifying their actions by claiming that the layoffs are performance-related. “How can thousands of people suddenly be termed as underperformers? Performance evaluations are arbitrary. Firms are throwing workers out to cut costs and not because of performance,” said the petition.
The members also urged the government to look into the matter of women employees being easy targets for forced resignations, while also regulating working hours in the IT industry.
“We demand that the exception from the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act 1946 be revoked and not renewed. Employees who face coercion, arbitrary terminations, unreasonable working hours and sexual harassment do not have adequate support from the law and the government,” said the petition.
Mr Kharge said that all the bodies opposing mass layoffs in the IT industry should come together instead of approaching the government through different groups, adding that the government will take a call on what needs to be done.
Premji denies sell-off
In a letter to WiproBSE 0.66 % employees, Azim Premji denied a media report that said he was looking at selling his holding in the IT company. "I remain as committed to Wipro as I have ever been. The news article about promoters of Wipro evaluating sale of their holding in the company is baseless and malicious. There is no truth to these unsubstantiated rumours," Premji said in the letter.
