IT layoffs: Will intervene, Karnataka minister assures employees' forum

Concerned about women employees, forum says they're soft targets for "forceful resignations"

Karnataka IT minister Priyank Kharge said the State Government could intervene to solve issues between employees' forum and IT companies.

"We will help them understand the State laws. I have told them to come together instead of multiple associations approaching me, and know about the existing laws. Then we can call industry players and find a way out. I cannot have a lopsided policy. There should be conducive environment for both investment and employment," said Kharge here after the Bengaluru chapter of Forum for IT Employees (FITE).

FITE's five-point demand

Govt instruction to firms to stop arbitrary layoffs, follow formal procedures and modes of communication

Strong recommendation to IT firms to focus on re-training and up-skilling of employees

Setting up an inquiry about effect of layoffs on IT women employees

Govt intervention to make appraisals more transparent and scientific

Regulation of working hours; employees are under huge pressure, working 12-14 hours a day

The forum has sought Karnataka IT minister's intervention to "set up an inquiry" on "the effect of layoffs on IT women employees". The forum said women employees in different IT services firms are "easy targets" for "forceful resignations".

Members of the forum submitted a letter to the minister with five key demand and claimed that companies were using "under-performance" as an excuse for "layoffs".

The forum also demanded that the IT services industry's "exemption from the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act 1946 be revoked and not extended further" with "companies engaging with anti-employee actions".

IT firms don't recognize labour unions and neither they are approved legally.

Companies have maintained people were let go of on performance grounds. The outrage also comes at a time when the IT services sector is seeing its worst time in close to a decade. The industry is witnessing automation take over low level jobs, while industry shifts to digital make people with experience in traditional services redundant.