Karnataka Approves Trade Union for Information Technology Industry
Karnataka's labour commission has certified the formation of the Karnataka State IT/ITES Employees Union (KITU) under the Trade Union Act, 1926, and Karnataka Trade Unions Regulations, 1958.
New Delhi, Nov 9: The massive Information and Technology industry on Karnataka is set to witness a huge change with the state government approving the formation of trade union.
Karnataka's labour commission has certified the formation of the Karnataka State IT/ITES Employees Union (KITU) under the Trade Union Act, 1926, and Karnataka Trade Unions Regulations, 1958.
Welcoming the move, KITU said the setting up of trade union would help lakhs of IT employees and provide them a platform to put forth their grievances.
"This is a significant moment for us, being the first dedicated IT employee union. The formation of the union was possible because there were enough number of IT employees facing (various) issues. We will be able to address these issues with vigour with the formation of an IT union," Vineeth Vakil, general secretary of KITU told The Economic Times.
Karnataka IT employees have long been demanding setting up of trade union to address issues like indiscriminate layoffs and long working hours. According to industry estimates, the top four Indian IT services companies may let go 12,000-15,000 employees in the coming months.
According to an estimate, state capital Bengaluru alone has about 1.5 million people employed in the IT industry. India has nearly 4 million IT employees.
The IT employees' associations in Karnataka have been alleging that the appraisal process of companies is not transparent and is irrespective of employees' performance.
They have also been claiming that the restructuring activity has not been done on performance basis, and thousands of employees who were terminated were actually good performers as they were rated good in appraisals earlier and also appreciated and awarded for their work from both the client and the company.
The affected employees claim their former employers pressured them to hand in resignations instead of sacking them, thereby saving on the expense of severance pay.
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