IT union to drag Cognizant to labour panel for ‘illegal terminations’

BENGALURU: After Chennai and Hyderabad, IT workers' union FITE has now decided to approach the labour commission in Bengaluru to submit a petition to stop the alleged "illegal terminations" happening at Cognizant.

Forum for IT Employees, or FITE, is a representative body of employees working in IT companies and call centres.

The body has already approached labour commissions in Chennai and Hyderabad, alleging that the Us-based firm is illegally terminating thousands of employees by forcing them to resign.

"We are all set to approach the labour commission in Bengaluru to submit a petition to stop illegal terminations happening in Cognizant," FITE Vice President Vasumathi said.

FITE also plans to approach labour commissions in Kolkata and Pune.

Cognizant had rolled out a voluntary separation programme for directors, associate VPS and senior VPS, offering them 6-9 months of salary.

While Cognizant maintains that performance reviews are done to ensure that it has the right employee skill sets, FITE is alleging that the highly-paid experienced professionals are being replaced by those with lesser experience and lower pay. Indian IT players including Infosys and Wipro have initiated performance reviews, a move that could see thousands of workers being shown the door.

While IT companies have been one of the largest recruiters in the country, increasing automation of processes is expected to lead to reduction in hiring in coming years.

Vasumathi said that depending on the outcome of conciliation meetings, a decision would be taken on whether or not to approach the court to solve the vexed issue.

She said FITE plans to hold a protest rally in Bengaluru, for which she is galvanising support from affected employees through social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.

Karnataka IT Minister Priyank Kharge had earlier asked the affected IT employees to lodge a complaint with the labour department.

In an interview recently, Kharge had said the government would look into the matter and provide legal assistance if the affected or laid off employees approached it like their counterparts had in Tamil Nadu.

The labour commissions approached so far, have promised to take action, Vasumathi claimed.

After the Hyderabad meeting on May 11, Cognizant had sought two weeks' time from the Telangana labour department to come up with a reply on the issue.

Vasumathi alleged that there is no transparency in the hiring and appraisal activities of the IT industry.

"IT firms must be asked to submit white papers on these processes to the government and to the public periodically," she said demanding that a tribunal be set up for knowledgebased industries. NEW DELHI: After months of delay, Paytm is now all set to commence its payments bank operations from May 23, having received the final approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). "Paytm Payments Bank Ltd (PPBL) has received the final licence from the RBI and would commence its operations on May 23, 2017," it said in a public notice.

The company will transfer its wallet business, which has over 218 million mobile wallet users, to the newly incorporated entity –PPBL –under the payments bank licence awarded to a resident Indian, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the founder of One97 Communications that owns Paytm.

After May 23, the Paytm wallet will move to PPBL. In case consumers do not wish for that, they have to inform Paytm, which will in turn transfer the wallet balance to the consumer's bank account once such details are shared. Such communication will have to be made before May 23.

In case the wallet has been inactive with no activity in the last six months, the transfer to PPBL will only happen once the consumer gives specific

Cognizant had rolled out a voluntary separation programme for directors, associate VPS and senior VPS, offering them six-nine months’ salary

consent. Payments banks can accept deposits from individuals and small businesses up to Rs 1 lakh per account.

Paytm was earlier slated to begin operations around Diwali last year. In 2015, the RBI had awarded in-principle approval to Sharma to set up a payments bank along with 10 others.

With the objective of deepening financial inclusion, RBI kicked off an era of differentiated banking by allowing SFBS (small finance banks) and PBS (payments banks) to start services. A total of 21 entities were given in-principle nod last year, including 11 for payments banks.

Later, three entities –Tech Mahindra, Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Company and a consortium of Dilip Shanghvi, IDFC Bank and Telenor Financial Services –backed out of the payments bank licensing.

Currently, Airtel and India Post are the only players that have started Payments Bank operations. Aditya Birla Idea Payments Bank is expected to launch services in the first half of this year.

Sharma will hold the majority share in Paytm Payments Bank, with the rest being held by Alibaba-backed One97 Communications. However, the Chinese entity will not have a direct shareholding in the payments bank.