CITU cripples IT sector in Bengal

The information technology (IT) sector of Kolkata saw just about 10 - 12 per cent attendance on August 20 due to the 24-hour strike called by the Left trade unions led by CPM's Centre for Indian Trade Unions (CITU).

The employees who did turn up for work at sector V on August 20 had to work 72 hours to tide over the strike.

Most BPOs and companies like Acclaris and Wipro were 'forced' to 'detain' their employees on Tuesday so that they could work on Wednesday, stay overnight, and leave after work on Thursday.

The employees who did not turn up will have to make up for it by working through weekend.

 

According to a spokesperson of IBM, "The employees who did not turn up in office today worked from home."

Most IT companies in Salt Lake Sector V kept their offices open but did not make adequate arrangements to ferry the employees to office because with CITU one of the sponsors of the strike, it was difficult to make transport arrangements.

"So, we are not even trying to hire buses to bring our employees to work and drop them home," said a senior official of a leading IT firm.

CITU supporters took out several rallies at the IT hub since early morning. The entire area wore a deserted look as transport kept off the road and the shops were closed down due to the strike.

According to Somnath Bhattacharya, secretary of the CPM-backed West Bengal Information Technology Services Association (WBITSA), the union has been campaigning since August 19 at Salt Lake's Sector V, the hub of the state's IT sector, for the 24-hour general strike.

Although his union claims to represent the IT companies' staff, the only members are some staffs of Webel, the government's promotion agency.

"The IT sector has been badly affected due to the strike. The percentage of attendance at the state's IT hub Salt Lake sector-V is unbelievably low," agreed Siddharth, West Bengal's principal secretary of IT.

Interestingly, Bengal was the first state to declare IT services as a public utility service in its 2003 IT policy, but a series of general strikes since have thrown up a thorny issue: how to ferry staff to the workplace.

According to the reports of the state government, the IT industry is growing at a rate of 71 percent against the national growth rate of 36 percent.

At present there are about 44,000 professionals engaged in the IT sector and West Bengal has more than four million sq ft of space occupied by IT and ITeS companies.