On Monday, the Hyderabad High Court served a notice to Tech Mahindra after 4 of its retrenched employees moved court over terminations by the company.
The notice has been sent to the Deputy Commissioner of Labour, Government of Telangana and Commissioner of Labour.
“Over the last two months, more than 70 techies from different organizations have filed petitions with the Labour Commissioner against illegal terminations. It is a very positive development that the High Court took cognisance of the happenings in the IT industry,” said Praveen Chandrahas, a volunteer with the Forum of IT Professionals (ForIT.)
ForIT is a Hyderabad based group which works for the rights of the IT professionals. The group has been supporting the 4 techies to file petitions, first with the Labour Commissioner and then with the High Court (HC.)
The petitioners claimed that their services were terminated illegally and that they were given no notice before they were asked to leave the company.
One of the petitioner, M. Satish who worked with the IT major for nearly eight years was asked to leave the company suddenly a few months back.
When he asked for a reason, he was told that the decision had been taken by the management, taking into account the ratings given to him by his manager.
“However, when I checked with my manager, the ratings that the HR had shown me were different from what my manager had given me. When I brought this to the notice of the organization, they told me the decision had already been taken and that nothing could be done now,” Satish said to a popular news channel.
Satya Prasad, a senior advocate representing the techies explained that the Government Order (GO) exempted the IT sector in the state from the Labor Laws. Though last year the High Court had put a stay on the GO and it is still being followed.
“They (techies) approached the Labour Commissioner first. However, he kept giving adjournments to the company and the company too was taking its own time on one or the other pretext. We then filed a writ petition seeking directions for the Labour Commissioner to interfere and take appropriate action to reinstate all of them,” he said.
“Exempting a sector from Labour Laws is unconstitutional. A legislation cannot be restrictive in its operations, especially in a way that it is benefiting only the employers,” Prasad stated.
The next hearing will be held after two weeks.
