BENGALURU: A trade union of information technology (IT) and IT-enabled services employees in the city has claimed that the sector has been slashing jobs and resorting to pay cuts since May.
The Karnataka State IT/ITeS Employees Union, a registered body that represents over 1000 members from the sector, claimed that at least 3,500 jobs may have been cut in the small and medium companies.
"Some medium and small companies have been retrenching even during the lockdown and we have raised complaints not only here (Karnataka) but also with the central labour ministry," Suraj Nidiyanga, secretary of the union, said.
This goes against directives of both the Centre and the state that had asked companies not to lay off staff during the covid-19 induced lockdown, he said.
The developments come at a time when companies from all sectors across the country are slashing jobs due to a steep decline in business caused by the economic uncertainty that accompanied the lockdown. The lockdown had forced IT companies to get their employees to work from home which may become a permanent feature due to the rise in covid-19 cases in Bengaluru among other places.
The employee union has asked for strict action against these companies. Nidiyanga said there were companies like Cognizant and others who were retrenching employees.
Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp, however, has dismissed auch allegations stating that these are not based on facts.
“Performance management is a normal process across all companies in the IT industry, including Cognizant. While Cognizant does not comment on rumor and speculation in the marketplace, we would like to clarify that recent third party allegations regarding a specific number of job actions are not accurate, not based on facts, and were not announced by Cognizant," the company said in a statement to Mint.
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