The CPI(M)’s trade union wing, CITU, on Thursday urged the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment to intervene in the matter of illegal retrenchments and salary cuts in the Information Technology (IT) and IT-enabled services sector in Bengaluru and Kolkata, in violation of the strict guidelines of the Ministry issued in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In a letter to the Secretary of the Ministry of Labour and Employment, CITU general secretary Tapan Sen submitted the list of around 20 companies which terminated the employees during the pandemic.
“In Bengaluru, Travel PD Co terminated one employee, Parallel Wireless in Bengaluru terminated 15 employees, Chumbak Design Private Ltd terminated 247 employees through forced resignation, Hula Infotainment terminated 30 employees, M/s Hem & RA T terminated 4 employees, M/s Mistefa terminated 60 employees through forced resignation, IVT Co terminated 22 employees, M/s Flying Out terminated 90 employees and M/s Timken and M/s Classlap India Pvt Ltd invoked a 50% salary cut while not paying the March salary to all the employees yet.
“In M/s Erevmax Technologies, 80 per cent employees were sent on forced unpaid leave which tantamount to wage cut. M/s Soumak, PICON, EEMDEE Digitronics Pvt Ltd and Pace Computer Service have invoked wage cut on all the employees,” said Sen asking the Ministry to take strict action against these companies for violating the orders issued by the Government. He said certain IT companies in Chennai are also terminating employees through forced resignations.
The CITU leader also reminded the Labour Ministry that there was no action taken against on the similar retrenchment incidents by certain Central government PSUs and banks. “All my previous four letters to you cited specific instances of violations of your directive/advisory by way of termination of employment of contract/casual workers in Banks in West Bengal, Border Roads Organisation and Hydro Power Project in Jammu & Kashmir, nonpayment of wages in Jute Mills and Tea Gardens in West Bengal, requesting your corrective intervention to enforce the directive/advisory issued by your office only to all concerned,” said Sen.