Bengal IT, ITeS employees submit application to form trade union

Kolkata: Kolkata Forum for IT Employees (FITE) on Saturday submitted its application for registration of trade union in IT, ITeS, BPO and KPO industries for the first time in Bengal. The plan to register for a trade union in the state triggered from a number of allegations of unfair labour practices towards employees. FITE formally announced its application of trade union to the Registrar of Trade union, West Bengal.

When a recession hits the market, the IT sector, being the largest employment sector, faces the heat and thousands of employees lose their jobs. However, what is striking is that out of the various heads for cost cutting companies, very conveniently labour is chosen as the primary and mostly the only head to reduce operating costs, expecting minimal to negligible resistance.

"We have started our journey back in December, 2014 when an IT major had announced layoff of 25,000 of its employees. Without having a formal registration, we tried to guide the deprived IT employees of different companies in the process of filing dispute at the Labour Commission and later in their legal fights. We played a significant role when another big IT house started firing employees randomly in March 2017 appraisal session,' said Santanu Bhattacharya, the proposed president of the union. The sector employs around 1.5-2 lakh people in the state. The union members are from almost 20 companies including big IT firms.