Satyam's overseas staff look to unions

Concerned over their job security, the onsite employees (those working on client locations) of the scam-tainted Satyam Computer are now knocking on the doors of worker unions for support.

"We have received hundreds of queries from Satyam employees in Japan, US and UK," Karthik Shekhar, General Secretary, UNITE Professional India, an IT-BPO Union and the Indian arm of UNITE told PTI.

UNITE is the UK's largest employee union.

The company had reportedly asked some of its onsite employees to return home. However, the company spokesperson said no such action had been taken by Satyam.

Earlier, top officials had indicated that there could be some trimming of overseas workforce and a reshuffle on the onsite-offshore balance to cut cost. It could not be confirmed as to how many employees are currently, working on client locations.

"In Japan, the employees are more distressed and worried as most of them are non-billable. The company had already made clear that they are trying to convert the non-billable employees into billable. So the employees of Satyam in Japan fears that they would be asked to come back to India and would be sacked," Shekhar added.