Madras HC stays(interim) TCS to terminate a women employee(a FITE Member); A ray of hope for many

 Not only for employment, but also for self-respect and justice

 “I can’t accept the label of non-performer. I’ll fight legally against the TCS management, my self-respect is at stake, said one of the TCS employee and a determined member of FITE, Ms. Priya ( name changed).

A dispute was raised with the labour commissioner under the Industrial Dispute Act and a writ was filed today and successfully a Interim STAY was obtained against the termination. The interim order was issued by the Honorable Judge Duraisamy in Madras High court, this afternoon.

This is a remarkable moment in the last three weeks of campaign against TCS Layoff commenced on Dec 21, 2014.  Yesterday, a dispute was raised under section 2A of Industrial Dispute Act by a FITE member in Labour office at Kuralagam, Chennai. The dispute is that she is not an under performer and she could not be thrown out of the company like this. The employee has to be protected under section (33) of Industrial Dispute Act, 1947. It also requested to invoke the conciliation proceedings immediately to resolve the dispute. Following this, a writ was filed in the Madras High Court to give directions to the Labour office to commence the conciliation immediately and until then the status quo is to be maintained. Senior Advocate Ms. Ramapriya and the Senior Counsel Mr. V.Prakash took up this case as a challenge and succeeded in getting the Interim STAY for the termination.

The interim order will restrain the TCS from giving effect to the order of termination of service of the petitioner issued by it on 22nd December 2014 for four weeks from the effect of today.

This interim order is meant more than the literal meaning it holds. It will smash the fear instigated over the employees. Every fire starts from a small spark. This is a spark. It will spread now with more and more surprises to TCS management in the coming days. We expect the TCS management to reverse its decision of profit based retrenchment, at least now.

We will invoke all our constitutional rights, labour rights for our job security.  And we will stand together cutting across the domains, technologies, delivery centres, companies, locations. Let’s break the chains of individualism and lift our head with the fullest spirit of being collective.

FITE will continue to explore legal means for the rights provided in our constitution. However, we are well aware that legal means alone will not resolve all the issues and hardships faced by the IT/ITES employees. FITE will strive hard to align up the IT/ITES employees under one network and take forward the struggle for the rights and welfare of the IT/ITES employees.

Though it appears as an interim relief for one employee, it gives the ray of hope for thousands. We call upon all the affected employees to come forward. The FITE Chapters all around the country will stand in union with you.

Join Us Let’s FITE together for our welfare and rights.