On December 31, ‘We Are Against #TCSLayOff‘ supporters from #TCS and other IT companies of the city met around 5:30 PM at Infosys Circle, Opp. Lemon Tree Hotel, Hinjewadi Phase I, Hinjewadi Rajiv Gandhi InfoTech Park, Pune.
A small introduction of the gathered people was done first followed by an informal discussion about how TCSers were asked to relieve in inhumane manner without valid reasons. Many techies turned around at short notice. An introduction about Young Tamil Nadu Movement and the significance of Forum for IT Employees were summarized by Vinod who came down from Chennai, to meet the employees.
The meeting was attended by around 20 people. Out of them, 5 were affected employees and they are ready to fight legally. The participants of the meeting agreed to take forward the e-petition campaign to achieve the target of one lakh signature in three weeks. All the participants joined the Forum for IT Employees (FITE) and told that they will ask other friends also to join the forum to unite and give voice against layoff and to restore the rights of IT employees.
Below are few of the experiences shared by the TCS employees who attended the meeting.
“HR is newly appointed from Chennai (to avoid any favoritism). His only job is to get the list of names from the Managers and give notice. This is purely a well-planned activity by the higher management.”
“I spoke to my Account Manager when I got the notice. He told that he may remove my name, if I can choose two members working in my team to add in the list.”
“I am allocated in projects for more than 4.5 years; not a single day without a project and have not got any negative feedback so far. Now, they released me abruptly from the project. Since the lay-off is going around, I suspect that my name is also there in the list. It’s not at all true that the company is targeting only non-performers or those whose skill set is not matching to get a project.”
“We need to take this wider and get more media attention, and the management’s attention.”
In the first week of December 2014, the media reported about TCS plans of ‘restructuring’ and it could affect 25,000 employees in the middle level category. Likewise the news about the terminations of senior employees was spreading across the country. In this backdrop, Young Tamil Nadu Movement, which was formed by IT professionals six years back, started campaigning against the lay-offs from December 22, 2014. For the campaign, a Facebook page, “We are against TCS layoff,” was launched that attracted more than 6600 likes. The campaign was carried out by distributing pamphlets and pasting stickers across OMR, Chennai.
Last Saturday (December 27, 2014), a closed room discussion between the affected TCS employees and the legal experts held in Chennai. About 40 IT employees – the affected TCS employees and also those in support on the campaign – participated in the discussion. Of them, 20 employees were affected and six among them were women. Legal experts advised to take up a legal battle against the TCS since the layoff was completely illegal. Some of the participants in the meeting also agreed for legal proceedings. At the end of the meeting, four important decisions were taken –
- Launching an online petition addressing the PM, Labour Ministry, IT Ministry to intervene in the matter and immediately stop this massive job termination by TCS.
2. Forming a network of IT employees to ensure job security.
3. Challenging the terminations legally.
4. Organizing public demonstrations against TCS job cuts by bringing in thousands of IT professionals
On December 29, 2014, the Forum for IT Employees (FITE) was launched and addressed the media in the press meet in Chennai. An online petition was also launched in change.org site. The movement received calls in support of the campaign from all over India. A meeting with the affected TCS employees and supporters from other IT companies of various cities across India was planned. On the same day, a similar meeting was organized in Bengaluru by the forum, and on December 30, 2014, the meeting held in Hyderabad. As part of the plan, the meeting was organized by the FITE in Pune on December 31, 2014.
Thank you Pune TCSers.
Vinoth
F.I.T.E.
01 – January – 2015
