800 laid off at Tata Technologies, employees seek justice

Employees of Tata Technologies, Pune, have complained against the Company to the Maharashtra Labour Department, through the Nascent Information Technology Senate (NITES), the non-profit organisation that works for the rights of employees in the IT/ITeS sector. Tata Technologies issued termination notices to 800 employees on March 1.

About 400 employees had been furloughed in June last year. The furloughed staff were not receiving any salary but they were eligible for medical benefits and were on the rolls of the Company. In short, they remained on leave without pay till December 2020, but they and their dependants were eligible for medical cover.

However, on March 1, about 800 employees of Tata Technologies received termination notices without any warning. They were informed that March 31 would be their last working day and that they would be paid only a month’s salary according to the contract.

The disgruntled employees are now demanding to know what happened to the salary for the about eight months that they were on the bench. Calling this termination illegal, the employees have refused to accept the reason that the Company is giving for the terminations, that is, the fact that it has not been able to procure any suitable billable projects for them.

In the complaint made to the Labour Department, NITES calls this termination a violation of Maharashtra state government’s rules and regulations as issued on March 2020 and labour laws. The Company, however, maintains that it has not broken any rules or laws.

It maintains that it had managed to assign almost 18 per cent of the furloughed employees to projects, but had no option but to let the remaining go, even while following the standard norms and procedures.