IT unions have gained traction in the recent times, but where will this lead to?

The Supreme Court will hear public interest litigation on terminations and salary cuts faced by IT employees on May 15. In the last couple of weeks, Pune labour commission sent notices to IT firms after some of their employees were benched, or asked to go on leaves.

Back in Chennai, there are more than half a dozen cases against IT firms pending in the Madras high court from workplace harassment to terminations.

All these were filed by IT unions, Forum for IT Employees (FITE) and National IT Employees Senate (NITES), which have gained traction in the last couple of years. More so, as the cases of terminations increase at the back of the coronavirus outbreak.

This is a significant development. Earlier, IT firms hardly had to deal with labour issues unlike the manufacturing firms that employ blue and grey collar workers.

That is all the more reason why these developments are important to take note of irrespective of the outcome of these cases.

Rise of unions

IT unions such as FITE started in 2014 when the industry saw mass layoffs. Elavarasan Raja, general secretary, FITE said, “After we started the union in 2014, we were more or less dormant till 2017 since we were building our base.”

“Back then we were just 10-15 members,” he added. It was not until recently that they gained traction. “We are 10,000 members strong now and have 30,000 followers in Facebook,” he added.

Raja attributed this sudden growth to more awareness and deteriorating workplace conditions in the IT sector. “Also the cases we have won against termination, harassment and maternity began to resonate among the employees,” he explained.

FITE is one of the biggest in terms of presence across states including Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, West Bengal and the National Capital Region that encompasses New Delhi and few districts from Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.

NITES is a Maharashtra-based IT union started by former members of FITE.

Others include Karnataka State IT/ITeS employees Union that started in 2017 and the IT wing of the New Democratic Labour Front that was started in 2015.

Is there a need for this movement?

Yes, say the IT unions. They allege, IT firms have been exploiting the employees for years and unions were necessary to bring in the balance.

IT/ITeS workers are known to work for longer hours. But unlike their blue-collared peers, they are paid better and work environment is anything but cozy. Salary aside, the IT employees enjoyed certain perks such as onsite deployment that will never be available to the blue-collared workforce. IT employees were a long way off from being considered slaves.

“But it cannot be said the same anymore,” pointed out a member of an IT union.

Take for instance Accenture. The company mandates the employees to work for 10 hours per day over a period of five days. A case was filed in Telangana High Court in September 2019 against Accenture, Cognizant and Caspex by Forum Against Corruption for making employees work longer and violating labour laws, the petition claims.

In addition, implementation of leaves such as maternity benefits and termination process some firms follow are a cause for concern too, said Raja.

All these together with the recent layoffs where thousands of mid and senior employees were laid off by Cognizant, have spurred the unionisation activities.

Are they getting any response from firms on these?

Raja pointed out to cases where employees who were terminated were taken back by the company.

But there are many cases where the efforts are yet to pay off.

For the petition filed against Accenture and other IT firms in September 2019, the firms did not respond till January. The same is the case for most of the notices labour commission sent in the last couple of weeks.

Pune labour commission had asked Capgemini to clarify the issues related to the leave policy, which a source aware of the development said it did.

The company had tweaked the leave policy to cap the total leaves at 15. Employees Moneycontrol spoke to said that company has asked the them take leaves till the balance is -5 and the tweaked leave policy will impact them when they need to take leave

In the email sent to employees, the statement says, "Please enter start date as April 7th and end date as per your leave balance (up to -5)."

However sources in the know explained that -5 leaves mentioned in the mail is the advanced leave employees can avail through the year and hence not mandatory. "It is a choice," added the source.

At the time of COVID-19, the company had capped the leaves to 15 only till end of June as an interim measure, Capgemini said in a statement. Also the cap is not applicable for those on maternity leave, those retiring this year and employees requiring medical attention.

When Cognizant laid off close to 7,000 mid and senior employees last year, the company met the labour commission after FITE filed a complaint on November 5, 2019.  But the IT unions were kept out of the meeting, which did not go down well with them.

The terminations still stand.

Where will this effort lead to?

Nowhere, say several industry watchers.

An industry expert said, “There are 5 million people in the industry and all these noises by the unions will lead nowhere.” According to another industry watcher, this hue and cry is unwarranted as layoffs have happened time and again in the sector and is set to happen again in the future.

Some experts have also pointed out that the unionisation might backfire as IT companies will now be wary of recruiting permanent employees if they have to take the backlash for business decisions during tough times.

The dependence on subcontractors has increased over the years and this would only further increase. “Well, that way IT firms can leave the dirty work of employee terminations to staffing companies,” pointed out another source.

But Raja of FITE has a different stand. "We are just a few years old. It takes years for unions to bear fruit," he said. According to him, it takes years to get the same impact and they are on the right track.

Note: The story has been updated with statement from Capgemini on its leave policy