Techies on the edge

Hyderabad: Anupam (name changed to protect privacy), has been an employee with TechM for over 12 years. He has been with the company since the days of Satyam Computer Services and has worked and transformed himself with four generations of technology. He has been successful in navigating those generational migrations.

Anupam was working on a project, where he was a billable resource. He took leave to go to his hometown, it was then he received a call from the HR. Anupam was shocked to hear that he was being asked to leave the company, over the phone.

The company even didn’t have the decency to wait till Anupam comes back from leave to talk in person. When Anupam told the HR that he would want to understand why he was being asked to leave and would come to the city and talk in person, the HR refused to wait.

Instead, the HR sent an SMS to Anupam stating that since he’s out of town and cannot send the resignation letter, they have initiated the process from the backend. Twelve years with a company, being loyal, navigating through troubled times the company was going through and actively contributing on a project none of this mattered for the company to throw him out.

Now Tech Mahindra a major player in the IT industry, with over 1,17,000 employees, is firing its employees. The company is now ‘downsizing’ its workforce aggressively. The means adopted in retrenching the employees are shocking to say the least, say the sacked employees.

Its revenues crossed $4 billion, the company’s profits are upwards with Rs 2,800 crore, and their cash-flow is Rs 5,300 crore for the last financial year as per the financial statement on their website.

Wipro Technologies, another major IT firm, reported annual profits of Rs 8,400 crore with an employee base of over 1,80,000. All major Indian IT firms have reported profits in the financial year 2016-17.

Over the last few months, not all seems to be well within these companies and the way in which they are treating their workforce. On the pretext of cost-cutting, employees are being axed and thrown out of their livelihoods.

Retrenched employees say that there are massive retrenchments in place and the number is in thousands. The reason for these retrenchments essentially doesn’t seem to be the losses incurred by either Tech Mahindra or Wipro or Infosys. Infosys has even stopped giving hikes to a certain percentage of their employees.

The managements of the IT companies claim that it is the ‘appraisal cycles’ and ‘low ratings’ for which employees are being forced out of their jobs. But, reports from the ground don’t concur so.

Apart from highly-disputed appraisal mechanisms in place in all IT companies, where they direct and ensure a number of resources to be ranked as underperformers, there isn’t any medium for the workforce to cross check or to ask for a rationale of such a rating.

In fact, asking for reasons could lead to a ‘termination’ of employment in TechM and other companies also, many IT employees told The Hans India on condition of anonymity.

There is a clear distinction between ‘resignation’ and ‘termination’. Employees wouldn’t prefer being terminated as they fear about job prospects elsewhere. The threat of termination is looming large on the employees; this threat is being used to force resignations out of employees.

Individuals are called into modern air-conditioned chambers and are threatened to resign or get ready to be terminated. In most of the cases to which The Hans India has a firsthand access they were asked to resign the same day.

Such coercive methods are raising eyebrows on the ethics of corporate governance. Vikram (name changed to protect privacy) was offered a job at TechM nine months ago. In fact, it was TechM which pursued Vikram to shift jobs stating that they have better projects and really needed him.

Though he was happy with his previous job, he took up the TechM’s offer because they offered to staff him on good projects. Nine months into TechM, he wasn’t staffed on any project. When asked, he was told that he needed to search for a project that he can work on. Vikram took it upon himself to find a project and indeed, he found one.

Vikram was happy that he could finally get back to working on a project, after nine months on the bench for no fault of his. Except that, TechM had other plans for him. His happiness was cut short when on the first day of his new project, Vikram was asked to resign by the HR.

Vikram couldn’t understand what was happening and demanded to know why they were asking him to leave and demanded to know why was he hired in the first place if they did not have projects. TechM’s response was to simply terminate Vikram.

Vikram has two children, one an infant, and his family depends on his income.“I have been working in Wipro for the past 12 years, I have commitments towards paying for my kids education, housing loans, and taking care of my ailing parents.

I was in the technical meeting solving problems for the client, when I was called by the HR and asked to put papers,” said Kishan working in Wipro. “I couldn’t even understand why? When asked, the HR bluntly says I have got the orders and I need to execute!”

The Forum of IT Professionals (ForIT), which has been working on the issues of IT professionals since 2007, is assisting the professionals to fight this injustice. Kiran Chandra, one of the founders of ForIT, says: “Companies are merely offering just two months of basic pay when employees are being terminated.

Neither there is a scope nor space to talk to an ombudsman or concerned authority in the company on the plight of injustice. No due procedures that comply with the law of the land are being followed. These companies are obliged to work in concurrence with the laws in India.”

The labour commissioner’s office seems to be receiving petitions of kind of Anupam and Vikram significantly. Close to a hundred petitions have been filed so far this year. A labour conciliatory meeting will be held at the office of the labour commissioner in this regard on Monday.

"We are in the process of addressing certain crucial issues pertaining to retrenchment in the IT sector. Only after the meeting, I will be able to make any comment," R Chandrashekaram, Joint Commissioner of Labour, Ranga Reddy district, told The Hans India.

Nasscom president R Chandrasekhar said: “No massive lay-offs in the IT industry, maybe it’s a bit more than the average attrition due to global dynamics, which are quite normal for the software industry.

However, I alert techies to re-skill themselves on emerging technologies such as automation, robotics, cyber security, etc. Otherwise, they’ll be forced to be in a position either re-skill or perish.”

But, the tone of the professionals is seemingly changing, “We shall fight the battle to protect our livelihoods. What is happening is not just illegal and unlawful but also inhuman.

We shall not be cowed down by threats of termination or blackmailing,” says Praneeth, an IT Professional who has been retrenched with an accusation of taking 172 leaves in a year, while he has a complete documentary evidence of working from home even on weekends and public holidays.