Employees want forum, but not CITU

The IT companies may have discarded the need for formation of a union in the industry, but the employees ""even white collar ones "" feel that there is room for an apolitical association to voice their grievances.

A quick survey of the employees in Sector V, the IT hub in Kolkata, in the backdrop of the launch of the West Bengal IT Services Association, revealed that a good number of employees feel the need for an association to take up their concerns.

These are employees of some of the biggest names in the industry operating in verticals like software consultancy and project implementation.

An IT professional said that many a times employees could not take the excessive work pressure imposed on them and this required to be addressed.

Some of the basic issues facing the industry are extended working hours, improper appraisal system and refusal to grant leave. Such cases are higher in smaller companies, but at times mid-sized and larger companies are also to blame.

Another IT professional complained against disparate salaries between onsite and offshore project members. "Onsite members get paid 10 to 20 times more than their offshore counterparts even though the load distribution may not be very different," he said.

The grievances appear more strident among business process outsourcing (BPO) employees, but not every employee feels the need for an association.

Some of the employees said that their human resource (HR) departments were good sounding boards for them. "We have an open and transparent system, where our problems are taken care of," said some employees.

However, apolitical association apart, all the employees quizzed said that a union under the aegis of CITU was not welcome in the industry.

It appears that next time Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee faces the employees, he may have to field some uncomfortable questions. "We voted the government back to power because they were doing good work, but this was not expected," said a woman employee in Sector V.