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IT/ITeS employees Union NITES accuses Amazon of violating India’s labour laws and writes to Labour Ministry
IT/ITeS employees Union NITES accuses Amazon of violating India’s labour laws and writes to Labour Ministry
Original publication: 2022-11-29 11:27:57
IT/ITeS employees Union NITES accuses Amazon of violating India’s labour laws and writes to Labour Ministry
Karma Management Global Consulting Solutions Pvt. Ltd. one of the top 5 consultancy firms, established in the year 2004, with headquarters in the business district of Santacruz East, Mumbai, India and full scale operation in all the States, having about 200 direct and indirect staff on its roll, is a leading service provider for payroll and payroll compliances, outsourcing, facility services, HR services, Training & Development, Recruitment & Talent Acquisition, Legal and Para legal services, Disputes and Litigation Handling, Inspection Management and Liaisoning , Advisory Services , Social , Environment and Vendor Audits, Regulatory compliances ad Governance. Compliance with labour and employment laws have become one of the most important issues that many establishments in India have to deal with. Many of the employment disputes result in litigation. Karma Global is an Indian HR, Payroll and Compliance firm advising clients worldwide on local, regional and global regulatory compliances in relation to their business goals, business strategies and resolving disputes. It gives valuable suggestions and advice to corporates, investors, institutions, contractors, establishments, industries etc. on the need for lowering employment risk across all levels and adhering to the laws of the land. It has a lot of expertise on employment-related compliance issues, as well as day to day support for the human resource department and in-house counsels. Karma Global is also into employment agreements and policies, structuring of compensation and benefits, employment aspects of merger and takeover, etc. Karma Global’s force, strength and reach has brought in tremendous change over from its earlier image of being a consultancy firm during the initial period of 2000, to now embarking on setting practices abroad in highly regulated markets and competing in the global arena. With India over taking UK to emerge as the fifth largest economy in the world and setting to become the third largest by2029, Karma Global is all poised for long term value in terms of client’s outreach and giving state of the art technology and excellent services to global clients better than ever before, Let us take an overview of the Union “NITES” and what all it does, before going into the main issue of the Union writing a letter to the Labour Ministry Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate – NITES is working for welfare and benefits of IT/ITES and its related sector employees. The Union’s immediate attention and actions are focused on various issues faced by IT /ITeS / BPO/ KPO Employees. This year, due to the alarming rate of layoffs and forced resignations, Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate – NITES accelerated its efforts and picked up the fight for worker rights in the industry with fresh rigor. So far Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate – NITES have raised issues of more than 89000 employees and have filed petitions in Labour Departments and District Magistrate against illegal terminations, Reduction in wages, forceful resignation, deduction of earned leaves, forcing employees to apply leaves as vacation, Maternity Benefits & various other issues. Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate – NITES also spreads awareness amongst employees regarding labour laws and encourage them to unite and now more than 21000 employees have joined them on various platforms. Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate – NITES through various channels have apprised IT employees that the Union is eligible for all rights that workers in all industries deserve. The Union have been requesting IT employees to join them to bring a change in the IT Sector for better working environment. IT/ITeS employees Union NITES accuses Amazon of violating labour laws - NITES, Employees Union writes to Labour Ministry- Employee Union - Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES) has written a letter to the Union Labour Ministry, seeking government’s intervention in the layoffs being conducted by US-based e-commerce giant Amazon in India.
- In the letter addressed to Labour Minister, the union for IT/ITeS employees accused Amazon of violating India’s labour laws.
- In a letter to Union Labour Minister, NITES claimed that Amazon staffers were removed forcefully from the company.
- NITES said that it has received complaints from Amazon employees that they are being forced to quit the company voluntarily.
- The big tech firm also sent a detailed Voluntary Separation Program (VSP) to its employees. The livelihood of hundreds of employees and their families is now vulnerable, NITES noted.
- The union maintained that a Voluntary Separation Programme has been sent to employees giving a deadline of November 30 to complete the process.
- As per earlier reports, the impacted Amazon employees were given a grace period until November 29 to decide whether they want to resign voluntarily. NITES mentioned that the date is November 30
- Essentially, a lay-off is a condition where the employers are constrained to deny work to their workforce owing to conditions that bring forth a temporary inability to keep their business going which is clearly not a scenario in Amazon’s case,” said NITES.
- Amazon recently started downsizing its headcount globally, and will cut 10,000 jobs in corporate and technology verticals. India accounts for 7% of its global workforce
“As per procedures laid down under Industrial Dispute Act the employer cannot, without prior permission from the appropriate government, lay-off an employee featuring on the muster rolls of the establishment,” the petition said, adding that a worker who has served for at least a year of continuous service cannot be retrenched unless served a notice three months in advance and prior permission from the appropriate government.The application has to be submitted by the employer, along with the reason for the retrenchment, and this is then to be scrutinized by the authority, NITES said. However, Amazon “clearly violated the existing provisions of Indian labour laws”, the union alleged while seeking “prompt intervention” and “immediate inquiry” by the government. NITES President Harpreet Saluja told the media that the union looked forward to justice for the employees. He also added that the unethical Voluntary Separation Policy mooted by Amazon would be scrapped off by the government and the action by the authorities has provided a sigh of relief for the employees. IT/ITeS employees Union NITES accuses Amazon of violating labour laws - Amazon’s Reaction ………………! According to sources, Amazon is all set to lay off up to 10,000 people as of now and the terminations continue till 2023. Amazon reported a lower-than-expected Q3 revenue of $127.1 Bn, which rose 15% year-on-year (YoY). Besides, the company is far from achieving profitability in India. Reports stated that up to 10,000 jobs are likely to be eliminated in this round of layoffs at Amazon. According to Reuters, this would be a 3 percent reduction of Amazon’s workforce. An email sent by Amazon Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy to employees said that layoffs will continue up to 2023, according to a Reuters report.
“Yesterday, we communicated the difficult decision to eliminate a number of positions across our Devices and Books businesses, and also announced a voluntary reduction offer for some employees in our People, Experience, and Technology (PXT) organization,” his note read.It added that Amazon hasn’t concluded exactly how many other roles will be impacted, but employees will be informed first. A source in the know said that among Amazon’s multiple entities in India, there is likely to be a lot of reorganisation as well. Employees in India will receive more clarity on the layoffs in the coming week. Amazon’s layoffs came after other Big Tech companies such as Twitter and Meta also announced significant headcount reductions. While Twitter laid off 50 percent of its workforce after Elon Musk acquired the company with more terminations since, Meta laid off 13 percent — or 11,000 people — from its workforce. IT/ITeS employees Union NITES accuses Amazon of violating labour laws - Amazon’s response to the Summons …………!
- Amazon India has responded to the summon sent by the Union Labour Ministry.
- In connection to the alleged violation of labour laws due mass layoffs, Amazon has responded and maintained that it did not sack any employee. It added that Amazon layoffs were actually voluntary resignations by employees as they opted for its separation programme on their own after accepting the severance package.
- Since Amazon India was expected to appear before the deputy chief labour commissioner in Bengaluru, representatives from the company did the same. While doing that, Amazon India submitted its version and followed the narrative that ‘resignations were voluntary.’ Denying all the allegations, the company has maintained its stand as mentioned.
- According to a report in the Economic Times, the Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES) has pressed for an enquiry after mentioning that Amazon had set a deadline of November 30 to complete the process of the infamous Amazon layoffs. The step, since it affected the lives of many people, must be under the scanner, as per NITES.
- The report adds that Amazon India has maintained that it tends to review the worker strength across verticals every year. The company indulges in this to see if it needs to realign anything in order to accommodate the changing environment.
- For the unversed, the Labour Ministry sought Amazon’s response after NITES petitioned claiming that the online retailer ended up forcibly terminating employees across India.