IT sector has a easier day

Salt Lake's Sector V, the IT hub of Kolkata that houses some 70 small to big size IT and ITeS companies, saw attendance of close to 75 per cent on Monday.

According to most IT and BPO companies operating from Sector V, IT and ITeS falls under public utility services and therefore, work was normal especially because the sector serves interests of several foreign companies.

Even employees who work in the UK and US shifts in BPOs, that typically start from 3pm and 9pm respectively, had reported to work.

According to Siddharth, the IT secretary of the state, BPOs functioned normally while a few of the software firms decided to remain closed today, swapping the two-day weekend with Monday and Tuesday.

A few of the software companies in Sector V saw attendance of close to 40 per cent, said official sources.

Wipro Technologies, which employs close to 100 people, however, remained closed.

IBM, however, provides its employees the opportunity to work from home, and therefore although the office in Sector V saw 40 per cent attendance, employees manning critical projects worked full-time from home, said official sources.

"We have about 10 pick-up points in the city from where employees were picked up and escorted to Sector V by the Kolkata police force," said Siddharth.

According to Debanjan Datta, CMD of Webel, "We have held review meetings with about 60 IT companies today and they have all confirmed that work at the sector is normal."

Webel runs bus services for its employees in South and North Kolkata and employees on Monday availed the buses and reported to office at 10am, by when the strike had commenced.

"Almost 90 per cent of the restaurants in Sector V also remained open for employees working in the sector," added Datta.

Although there has been no official declaration about Tuesday's status, the IT and ITeS sector of Kolkata is hoping 70 per cent attendance at the BPOs, and 50 per cent attendance for software services, if not more.