After Cognizant, another Leading IT Company laid off Benched Employees, Gets Notice from Government! Details

After Cognizant, Leading IT firm Capgemini is laying off bench employees in India. The company has laid off employees who had been on the bench for more than two months. 

In a letter to the Pune Labour Commission, National Information Techology Employees Senate (NITES), a Maharashtra based IT union, stated that the union has received complaints from employees who have been forced by the company to reign or are being terminated.

"Based on the complaint, the Labor Commissioner office in Pune has ordered Capgemini to immediately reinstate those employees who were fired during the lockdown.A Conciliation meeting too has been arranged on July 13th, which will be conducted between Capgemini representatives, and NITES Generate Secretary Harpreet Saluja.The details on how these employees will be reinstated can be discussed in this meeting, and how the employees who have been fired can be helped," Trak.in cited in its report.

“Because of this, the pay and jobs of close to 300 employees are at risk,” the statement added. Pune labour commission has asked Capgemini to meet them on July 13 to address the situation. Based on the complaint, the Labor Commissioner office in Pune has ordered Capgemini to immediately reinstate those employees who were fired during the lockdown.

According to the union, IT employees started facing problems since April. Harpreet Saluja, general secretary NITES told,” “We started getting complaints from Capgemini starting April.” Employees had approached the union stating that they were being put on the bench.”

All India Forum for IT Employees (AIFITE), a Chennai-based IT Union, said their union received information about termination of bench employees.

However the company in a statement to media, mentioned that .  “At Capgemini, we have a robust performance management process. Performance-related reviews are likely to result in some employee exits which is a standard process across the industry. The bottom performers are given a couple of months to better their performance.”

The company also added that even during COVID-19, they had given increments for employees at both junior and senior levels. The quantum of these increments were also said to be in high single digits.

“This has been done as per plan and in line with our commitment to ensure market competitiveness across all grades. We continue to hire and onboard new employees and have on-boarded more than 9500 hires from January to date,” the statement added.

However, employees point this out as the irony of the situation/ “So, on the one hand, the company is offering hikes and on the other, layoffs are happening, with the focus on the middle management level,” pointed another senior employee.