Employees of information technology and enabled services have a new crusader on their behalf - Forum for Information Technology Employees, launched by Youth Tamil Nadu Movement.
Known earlier as Save Tamils Movement, the Youth Tamil Nadu Movement's (YTNM) forum aims "to speak out for the welfare and rights" of information technology (IT) and information technology-enabled services (ITeS) employees in India. The forum has taken up the cause of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) employees, who, they claim, are being laid off.
P Parimala, a co-ordinator of the forum, said it would work with legal experts to challenge the "lay-offs". "We have two demands: One, the company should immediately reveal how many people they are planning to lay off. Two, the central and the state governments should stop this."
Senthil Kumar Thyagarajan, a volunteer for the forum, said they are planning to initiate legal action from Kolkata or New Delhi, as most of the people laid off are from these two cities. The forum has 350 members, most of whom are IT professional. It has already received calls from 120 TCS employees who have been given a "pink slip" by their employer. Last week, 20 employees who had been laid off attended a meeting of the forum.
YTNM coordinator Parimala said the current performance appraisal system at TCS was faulty. An employee working at a client on-site location abroad is given a "C". "Even a woman on maternity leave during appraisal is given a 'C'," she said.
Many of the employees being laid off have seven to 12 years of experience.
