When the employees of railways protest, the entire rail commuters get affected. All the residents get affected if the Electricity Board announces strike and suspends electricity. When they unite and protest, the civilians are affected and so the government is inclined to intervene and investigate. Now, consider the occupational life of an IT/ITES employee. What if we don’t monitor the transactions of a banking-software for one day? What if we don’t write/test code for a day and delay a project delivery? What if we stop answering calls from customers of various countries? All this affects companies and citizens of various countries. If employers can glorify themselves as “Global companies”, then we employees are rightfully “Global citizens”. We IT/ITES employees are part of an international society. So when there is an injustice meted out to us, ideally people across borders should support us. But the sorry state is that even the news of an atrocity does not go out of the air-conditioned closed door conference rooms. The members of our forum are encouraged to bring to limelight such incidents which otherwise may not be known to outside world. When can employers think twice before they lay their hands on employees’ rights against the present situation of providing none to employees? It can happen only when we unite as a group and treat every employee’s problem as ours and raise our voice against it. Given our contribution to this global eco system, even a small unified stir can send out a strong message to any big IT/ITES giant and bring out a positive change.
The pressing problems before us:
Job insecurity: Employees cannot be treated like sugarcane – to throw them as junk after extracting all their skills.
Biased appraisal system: Favoritism to the management cannot be accepted as a factor to get better appraisal.
Slog hours: Who accounts for the difference between the hours we work and the hours we book?”
Irregular shifts: They hire by saying rotational shifts. But does that happen?
Compensation anomalies: What transparent pay-scale exists? They throw it and we fetch it.
What does Forum for I.T. Employees aim at doing?
- Well, the company might conduct mock-drills to teach us how to safeguard during disasters. But it would not tell us what to do when it executes involuntary expulsions. In such grief stricken moments, our forum vows to unite and fight against the company in legal ways.
- Company might conduct sessions to make employees be aware of its policies. But it would not make us be aware of what our rights are. Our forum aims at self-empowerment of all employees with the rights bestowed on them.
- Company might boast of its internal governance. But when an harassment unfolds, it would confine the news within its walls. Our forum will take such issues and seek justice for such inhuman acts.
What should I do as an IT/ITES employee?
- Become a member of this forum (Forum for I.T. Employees).
- Spread this initiative among your fellow employees and encourage them to become a member.
- Stand united. Volunteer to stand against injustice.
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3 Comments
ymgindia January 13, 2015 at 7:57 pm
I agree on the points mentioned againt IT companies
VS January 19, 2015 at 8:51 am
If you consider yourself as part of International society don’t you then know lay offs are part of international society.
Soch January 20, 2015 at 7:24 pm
Yes, layoffs are with any industry, international or national. Layoffs should have a strategy, an ethical strategy. An employee if laid off should be given time, compensation, and a valid reason. “You are an under-performer” is a reason, valid if true based on prior evaluations. The nature of evaluation is however another ball-game, a different world of its own. Keeping that aside, back to your point, its how the employees of TCS were laid off and not the nature of downsizing or laying off in itself is questioned. If an employee in a nation where there are strong laws is laid off in the fashion TCS did then it by default would be taken to court. Here without such strong laws and corporates enjoying the very nature of law-bending takes everyone for granted. Rightly said, we are sugarcane’d.