An IT Workers' Union: Outlandish Or A Sign Of The Times?

Forum For IT Employees (FITE) continues to get a lot of media attention

An IT Workers’ Union: Outlandish Or A Sign Of The Times? Bloomberg wonders, adding
"India’s software services industry faces a twin challenge: U.S. President Donald Trump’s protectionist policies and automation. And as companies lay off staff, a group of employees is now trying to form an IT workers’ union.
There’s been a growing sense of insecurity among the IT professionals over the last few years, said Elavarasan Raja, a 27-year-old IT worker from Pune. That’s led the group to try and form a union to better protect employees’ welfare, said Raja who is part of the group.
Called the Forum For IT Employees, the group now has around 3,000 members and chapters in nine cities, including its headquarters in Chennai, and in prominent IT hubs like Bengaluru and Pune, according to Raja.
The group, in a recent press release, alleged that Cognizant Technology Solutions was illegally terminating thousands of employees by forcing them to submit their resignations"

Another article in Indian Express "Rattled techies turn to Labour department for help" says

Though the Labour department has been receiving individual complaints on illegal lay-offs for several years, it is only now that the disgruntled employees are approaching the government officials in groups backed by IT  employee associations. 
IT employees are slowly coming out in bringing their dissent to labour authorities through section 2A of Industrial Disputes Act (IDA), which assures employees of an industrial dispute when an employer retrenches an employee. Officials on the other hand feel IT lay-offs are being blown out of proportion now. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Checklist: What to do after death of a Parent or loved one?

Image
With a death in the family, survivors may have to come to grips with the stark reality: how to move forward after the death. While the grieving process can take time, one also must address several documentation, paperwork and other formalities. Here are a few things that you will have to follow up on: To Do Immediately After Someone Dies Inform loved ones, family and friends Arrange for a funeral - depending on your custom and current regulations and wishes of the deceased, you will have to plan for the final rites Plan for after death ceremonies - this will depend on your customs (e.g  After death ceremonies – Brahmin Iyer ) Apply for a  death certificate . This is the most important legal step and may be a two-step process The hospital, crematorium or burial ground officials may issue a letter/document with the name of deceased and cause of death.  The letter/document needs to be submitted to the local municipal/corporation office that will ‘record’ the death and i...
Read more

A victim of “Pig Butchering” scam, an Indian American family succumbs to tragedy

Image
This week I got a WhatsApp message in a university alumni group about a GoFundMe page created by Aruna, a batchmate that talked about her husband’s suicide after he fell victim of a cryptocurrency scam. In the GoFundMe page, Aruna went on to explain  how her husband was an  “unfortunate victim of a cryptocurrency scam where he was skillfully manipulated into parting with our entire life savings. Through the shameless, methodical and savvy deception of these heartless cyber criminals, they utilized a “pig butchering” scheme and managed to convince him to pull every single penny out of our life savings, including all of our retirement funds. There is nothing left in our accounts, except debt and loans to pay.”   Video viewpoint by Author, Mohan Aruna’s family is the story of a typical middle-class American dream. She migrated to the US with her husband after her masters in India. They then spent the past couple of decades pursuing the American dream – seeking a Gree...
Read more

Will the Indian layoffs affect SAP consultants?

As we know that there are few IT giants, who are asking their employees to leave organization in good terms. So, my query is, will it affect SAP SD Consultants (SAP Core Module Consultants)? My Experience in SAP SD is 2 to 3 Years. Please Explain!!! Let us start by understanding the context of ‘layoffs’ Check out My2cents on that topic “ What is the reason behind the layoffs in IT firms in India? Is it related to the H-1B visa, or some other reason?”)  Let us look at the question from a couple of angles Are SAP SD skills marketable? The skills certainly seem marketable. There are a few hundred jobs posted on LinkedIn (India), many posted by Infosys, Wipro, HCL etc. Will a company retain SAP SD consultant on long-term bench ? Let us assume you work for a services firm (“IT Giant”) that just lost a large account where dozens of SAP SD Consultants worked in a support role. After waiting for a while, they may decide to layoff *all* the folks on bench for more than 2-mon...
Read more