Union: SISL India fires with in minutes

NetLeiwand reported about 128 planned redundancies in SIS India (SISL). In the following we publish the letter of Karthik Shekhar with his view of about 500 lays off in SISL:

Dear Peter Galadriel,

Greetings from UNITES Professionals !

UNITES Professionals Union for ITES employees in India has taken up SISL – Campaign as more than 128 of Indian employees lost job in the last weekend. We have a unofficial figure of about 500 employees who lost the job this includes contract employees also.

We are the only union representing IT & ITES employees in India. We are affiliated to UNI Global union. UNITES strives to create a distinct and cogent link between employers & employees at all levels but our repeated request to NASSCOM has not resulted in any prevention of job loss, so we broke this story with active support of IT & ITES employees across India.

Please keep visiting the UNITES website for regular updates on IT & ITES updates.

Thank you for your interest and contacting UNITES Professionals. We condemn Siemens for laying its employees in Bangalore and violating Section 25-F on retrenchment.

UNITES Professionals is the only Union for IT & ITES employees in India.

Workers Rights including lay off as per Industrial Dispute Act. Section 25-F: Conditions precedent to retrenchment of workmen:

No workman employed in any industry who has been in continuous service for not less than one year under an employer shall be retrenched by that employer until -

(a) the workman has been given one month’s notice in writing indicating the reasons for retrenchment and the period for notice has expired, or the workman has been paid in lieu of such notice, wages for the period of the notice;

(b) the workman has been paid, at the time of retrenchment, compensation which shall be equivalent to fifteen days’ average pay [for every completed year of continuous service] or any part thereof in excess of six months; and

(c) notice in prescribed manner is served on the appropriate Government [ or such authority as may be specified by the appropriate Government by notification in the Official Gazette].

Answer to your questions:

Question (Q)> How many layoffs were realised in the last months?

Karthik Shekhar (K.S.)> Officially they have lay off 128 members from SISL Bangalore/Karnataka in India.

Q>In which way people were fired? (at once after information on the same day or some days, weeks, months later)

K.S.> With little or no information they were fired I will send you the articles in press in this regards. Most of them were fired with in minutes of arriving work spot.

Q> Is there any work's council or union representation in the SISL company? If yes would you please give me a contact information (email, skype name)?

K.S.> Their is no work's council and many employers both from India or Multi National companies do not have work council as they feel the IT & ITES employees are above the work council and we have tried to form union for the last three years and had little success as we do not have access to work place and union members are intimidated. Even in this LAy off not a single worker has complained to us as they have been told if they do they will be black listed by SISL and NASSCOM (Employers Body) which will effect them in getting next job. UNITES is the only enterprise level who is supporting this so please contact us and we will be happy to get any solidarity.

Regards Karthik Shekhar General Secretary

Looking forward for your valuable support and passing this information to other in IT/ITES organisations.