IT Pink Slips and a Red response
By Suneetha.B

The IBS in Technopark, Trivandrum; one of the most reputed companies here, issued quite a few pink slips in the last week of October, ostensibly as a routine measure after the annual performance appraisal. Media reports say that the laid off personnel were informed individually and offered 2 months salary as compensation.

But the IBS management had an unusual reaction and from an unexpected quarter this time. The Labour minister, Mr. P.K.Gurudasan, of the Communist Marxist party led government in the state of Kerala, in an immediate response said the department would conduct an inquiry into the incident and labour department officials would visit Technopark to find out whether the company has flouted labour laws in the name of global recession. They actually did it too, but the company management denied that the pink slips were anything to do with the global recession.

The reactions did not stop there; the party owned television channel even telecasted the indignant responses of the Marxist party youth wing officials. The local media brought back to memory the exhort  of  Mr. Prakash Karat and Mr. Sitaram Yechuri, the National leaders of the Marxist Party to form trade unions in the IT sector considering the constant flux and the issues that remains unaddressed in the absence of bargaining power.

Techgoss spoke to the UNITES Professionals, the body that fights for the IT/ITES people facing various issues with their companies. Karthik Shekhar, the General Secretary of the UNITES Professionals gave us this statement. “We welcome Shri PK Gurudasan Minister for Labour’s stand that the Labour department should intervene in the IBS layoff issue. We hope this well set the precedent for active involvement by Government & Labour Department and in ensuring workers rights are protected. UNITES Kerala will follow up on this and we will continue to educate IT/ITES workers on their Rights at Work"

Meanwhile the IT sector companies have become apprehensive of the move. Today’s Hindu newspaper reports the captains of the industry expressing concern at the knee-jerk reaction that the issue has been overly politicised and has been blown out of proportions. The industry representatives think that this is interference in the functioning of an IT firm. Mr Vijayaraghavan, former CEO of Technopark, looks at it as a decision that is damaging to the whole sector. He said IT firms may be forced to take desperate measures to tackle recession and that this is a suicidal approach that would scare off investors to Kerala. Another techie boss, Mr. Satish Babu of the In-App companies is quoted to have said that ‘the government action amounted to an infringement on the rights of companies”.

The IT sector is definitely an area that is considered fertile for trade unions and offers a lot of scope for activity, but it remains to be seen if it is political trade unions with clout or non-political organisation of the genre of the UNITES Professionals that will work to the best interest of the IT/ITES Personnel.