Coimbatore: While on the one side, more than 15,000 IT employees lost their jobs in the past three months in Coimbatore, existing employees face unbearable work burden which has caused them severe mental agony.
Coimbatore: While on the one side, more than 15,000 IT employees lost their jobs in the past three months in Coimbatore, existing employees face unbearable work burden which has caused them severe mental agony.
Coimbatore is one of the fast developing two tier cities because of which a lot of IT companies have their operations here. There are both government and private run Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and many IT companies have been established at various places across the district.
Around one lakh people are employed in the IT sector in Coimbatore. After the lockdown implementation, per Central government's guidelines, the employees were given the option to work from home (WFH).
Some of the big renowned software companies have laid off a number of employees which has affected their lives very badly. While the employees who are sent out face various issues, the employees who escape the layoff and continue to work, face a different type of problem. They are burdened with additional work each day and are made to work for more hours irrespective of the office hours. If the employees question, they are challenged with the option of resignation.
Many IT employees say availing leave is not at all possible since they are not provided with that option at all. Since the situation is getting worse each day, the employees have requested the government to interfere and ensure that the layoffs are not continued.
They also lamented that post the COVID-19 outbreak, more layoffs have been made by companies. Stating an example, they said, "A nine-member team that works under a team manager has now been down sized. Eight of the employees are terminated. Now the work burden of the whole team falls on the existing two employees- the team manager and the existing one employee.
In some companies, employees are working even for more than 15 hours a day. This has pushed them to severe mental agony. Questioning the management regarding the additional work pressure elicits an immediate reply - either continue to work like this or resign. Availing leave is not at all possible. Due to these issues, the existing employees who have overcome the layoff are now being affected with mental depression."
The Joint Secretary of the Forum for IT employees, Bharathidasan said, "The situation in the IT companies across the district is getting worse each day. There is no job security. We are receiving frequent calls from the employees saying that they have been laid off from their companies. Even many renowned IT companies sack more and more employees.
The employees who have been sent out have a minimum of 10 years experience. Some employees are sent out for poor performance as the reason, but in some companies in spite of the employees showing their best performance, they are sent out from the project to the bench (waiting list). If they do not get allocated to any new project within 40 days they will be sent out from the company. 2017 also witnessed the same problem. Some employees fought legally and as a result of this, IT companies implemented a scheme called PIP (Performance Improvement plan)."
He added, "Some software IT concerns are distributing termination orders directly. The Prime Minister requested all the companies to not lay off workers, but the ground reality is different. On behalf of our forum. We took this issue to the district administration and the labour officers. However, they replied that they cannot do anything about this. Irrespective of whether the labour laws are applicable to our sector or not, we request the government to intervene in this issue."
Coimbatore Hi-tech Information Limited (CHIL) SEZ IT Park Director, Ashok Bhaktavatsalam said, "The COVID-19 outbreak followed by the lockdown implementation did not have much impact on the IT sector, like the other states. There may have been a 15% layoff witnessed in the IT and related sectors (small and medium companies alone) at Coimbatore. Leading IT companies have not announced more layoffs. but some leading companies have long-term and short-term challenges and hence they may be taking steps to adjust to that situation.
Most of the jobs are done with work from home, but certain jobs which are confidential in nature are done at offices per government guidelines. Work from home is new to our employees and they are still finding it difficult to adapt used to it. Overall productivity has dropped due to human nature. We are alerting the employees. The present crisis witnessed in some IT companies is only for a short term. The situation will definitely change soon. Salary and allowances are comparatively more in IT jobs.
Unlike other sectors, employees should continuously keep updating their technical skills. If not, they will lose their jobs. Data science and Artificial Intelligence (IT) will play a major role in the future. This sector will provide more employment and in order to succeed one must acquire new skills. Being strong in theory, especially Mathematics, is important.
The Artificial Intelligence wave that rolled in before the COVID-19 outbreak has gained momentum now. It is high time for both the existing employees and the students to improve their skills. If not, they cannot survive in this sector."