CPM urges government to enact special law to protect IT employees

CHENNAI: CPM on Monday flagged the issue of IT employees layoff in the state and urged the Central and the State governments to enact a special law to protect IT employees' rights.

“IT companies are not fully implementing the labour laws of the country. The Central and the State governments should intervene and enforce labour laws in the IT sector, ” a resolution adopted at the CPM state committee meeting held here on Monday. The meeting was attended by CPM's former general secretary Prakash Karat.

Pointing to the cutting down of jobs by major companies and startups, it said that leading IT sector companies in the state have started sacking the employees illegally without any prior notice. “Employees were not given time to explain themselves. Workers are illegally forced to sign as if they were resigning themselves. Hundreds of Tamil Nadu software engineers are losing their jobs at a young age. The CPM state committee strongly condemns such illegal actions, ” it said.

The resolution said that to resolve the issues faced by IT employees, tripartite committees should be formed. “IT companies should desist from recruiting employees on a contract basis against the labour laws. Strict action should be taken against the companies that are acting illegally and to protect the employment of software engineers, We urge the central and the state governments to enact a special law to protect the IT sector employees from job loss, ” it demanded.

The Marxist party said that citing the global economic slowdown various companies are cutting jobs in the IT sector. “In the last 10 years, the IT sector is said to have grown to $227 billion but has created fewer job opportunities this year compared to the previous year. During this period, large companies have maintained their profits. To overcome economic slowdown, the companies have started cutting down jobs, ” it said.