Reactions Of Recession

In the first week of November, Gireesh N, working for IBS Software System Pvt Ltd in Infopark, was given the pink slip by his HR manager. He was given only half an hour’s time to resign. “I was really shocked because it was only a few months ago that I was offered a pay hike by the management. In fact, I was about to join an IT firm outside Kerala which offered me a higher remuneration, than I get from IBS,” says Gireesh. To retain him the management offered him an increment. But unfortunately his association with the company did not last long.

Gireesh is not alone in his plight. The company terminated seven others from Infopark.

The global recession is hitting us hard with about 200 professionals working in IT and ITES companies in Infopark and Technopark losing their jobs and three companies in Infopark closing down.

But State Information Technology secretary Ajay Kumar says the sacking of employees has not come to the notice of the State Government. “The government has constituted a committee for taking appropriate action in such cases. If we get complaints the committee will inspect Infopark and take steps to check if the companies sacked employees without proper reason,” Ajay Kumar said.

Remya S, working with an IT firm in the Cochin Special Economic Zone, says, “Our company has not sacked anybody till date.

In fact we have been given a salary increment.” She is among the fortunate ones as many IT firms have cut down allowances of employees and that includes house rent, travelling and uniform allowances. “The management has hinted that they are also going to cut our salary,” said an IT professional working at the Infopark.

Mathew John who works with IBS in Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram, says that the company had plans to terminate 130 employees. “But after 27 employees were terminated, here, in Kochi, there was quite a reaction and they didn’t move ahead with the plan.

But our HR personnel have told us that they will soon terminate more employees,” he said. What irks them is that the sacking is not based on performance. “Even those who have bagged a good performance certificate from CEO V K Mathews of IBS are jobless now.

The worst thing is that they were given pink slips citing poor performance,” he says. But Mathew Joshua, head, corporate management, IBS, begs to differ. He said they had sacked only four IT professionals from the Infopark unit and that was owing to poor performance. “We have not cut down the allowance of our employees,” says Mathew.

The majority of companies, including Infosys, Wipro and L&T on the Infopark campus have terminated their employees very stealthily, sources say.

“The management asked us to clear all formalities within 10 to 15 minutes. There is nothing we could do,” said an IT professional working at Infopark on condition of anonymity.

Some say that sacking is not new in IT companies. “This happens every year.

About 500 professionals were sacked from various units in the country last year. This year too the same thing is happening. But due to recession this is getting a lot of attention,” said an IT professional working for TCS at Infopark.

But the techies are confident that they will soon land better jobs. “This is just a bad phase which will pass,” says Soumya B, another techie. And her opinion is backed by her friends and colleagues who are hopeful that things will change for the better.

Courtesy: expressbuzz.com