Amidst divergent views on whether or not the information technology industry should be exempted from Standing Orders, which safeguards employee interest, the Labour Department is meeting stakeholders, including the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), on Friday.
The State government, in 2014, exempted the IT industry from the applicability of Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946, for five years, which is coming to an end on Thursday. While the trade unions have been opposed to the exemption, industry body NASSCOM has sought a further exemption.
Applicable to all other industries in the State, the Standing Orders provide benchmark in protecting employees and covers a host of service conditions, including appointment, hours of work, lay off and retrenchment, leave, obligation and duties of employees. Trade unions have been pointing out that the exemption has resulted in the IT industry practising “regressive human resources policies.”
“We want to understand what NASSCOM wants and why the industry needs further exemption even after receiving exemption for about 20 years. Also, the government wants to understand if the industry has reached a stage to be without exemption,” top sources in the Labour Department told The Hindu . “The department is looking at the issue openly. As far as the department is concerned, we would want to treat labour issues uniformly across sector,” sources said.
Sources also confirmed that fresh exemption has not been given by the government yet. “The Labour Department has only received a reference from IT/BT Department about a request made by NASSCOM on extending the exemption. The Cabinet has to take a decision on whether or not the exemption has to be given,” sources said.
‘Regressive practice’
Meanwhile, trade union bodies, All India Trade Union Congress, and Association for Rights of IT Sector Employees met senior government officials, including the Chief Secretary, urging withdrawal of the exemption. “The IT industry has adopted regressive practise of hire and fire quite openly in contravention with the laws of the land. There have been hundreds of cases of forced resignations and illegal dismissal,” they argued in the petition. Further, the trade bodies said that the industry, which follows stringent labour laws in the Western countries, seeks exemption from Indian labour laws.
