New Democratic Labour Front (NDLF), a trade union, has alleged that Syntel is forcefully terminating its employees in India, and has plans to axe around 3000 in the coming days.
As per the claims made by the IT Wing of NDLF, Syntel has already sacked several hundred employees from their offices located in Mumbai, Chennai and Pune without giving them the 30 day notice period which is mandatory as per labour laws.
In a press release by the trade union circulated to media houses, they have claimed that 20 of these forcefully sacked employees have contacted them for assistance. As of now, NDLF has refused to reveal the identities of these 20 employees.
As per the press release, “Syntel has planned and is enforcing layoff of 3,000 employees. This has been going on for the past one month and thousands have already lost their jobs”
$1.22 Billion worth Syntel has 24,534 employees all over world with 17 delivery centers in USA and India.
Last year they clocked revenues of $911.4 million, with operating income of $268.3 million. Syntel was incorporated in Michigan, USA in the year 1980 by Bharat Desai and his wife Neerja Desai; and quickly gained a solid name in the market by acquiring clients such as General Motors and key US Government projects. As of now, all their key management persons are Indians with Bharat Desai as Chairman and Nitish Rakesh as CEO.
Syntel Responds
Rajesh Save, global head of human resources at Syntel has denied these allegations of forceful terminations, and has said that the low performing employees are being asked to remove as per the industry practice.
He said, “As part of Syntel’s annual evaluation process, few employees who have not performed to these expectations were released. The numbers reported are speculative and do not represent facts on the ground.”
However, NDLF, which is known to support employee’s cause and have actively taken part in agitations against MNCs for mistreating their employees are sticking with their version of the story.
S Karpagavinayagam, organizer of NDLF- IT employees wing, said, “Our union strongly condemns this illegal and unethical labour practice by Syntel. IT employees should also be able to protect their rights through a labour body, just like workers of other sectors,”
NDLF & Employee Agitation
This involvement of a trade union in employee’s relationship with their employers is the second instance in the last 12 months.
Last year, NDLF filed Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in Madras High Court against TCS for firing thousands of their employees on grounds of performance and other issues. Based on the PIL, Madras High Court issued an order to the Tamil Nadu Government wherein it they were instructed to initiate a policy decision for implementing Industrial Dispute Act in the IT sector to save employees from forceful terminations.
In this latest issue concerning Syntel, NDLF has demanded that the concerned state govt. take immediate action to stop these forceful terminations.
Innovative tactics were employed to remove managers. by making them do ground level work like coding and testing and then asking them why your are taking high salary and doing less valuable work.
Worst every company to work for. CAUTION to existing employees and new Joinee, refrain from any offer from Syntel and if you are already in Syntel start planning for new job, as they can AXE you for nothing. Worst process and and very immature company it looks to be. Somehow they are able to fool customers about their product and support which is 1 if I have to rank them from 1 to 100.
Sudarshan, I was under impression they might be touching E45 high performers after LE 5 was over. I was surprised when I understood from one of colleague that they retain LE5 people who were less flexible. Either there is no analysis done before this exercise or people who are having god fathers but poor performers will retain in organization. In such case there is no astrologer require to predict organization will sink soon.
Syntel laidoff people who have just completed one year and didnot released their rating as well.
They laid off one to one and half year experience resources as well who are billable and in bond period.
They are not even giving one day time also and mentally harassing employees that they will terminate you with some illegal allegations.
4 people out of the 19 member team were promoted before the entire 19 member team (entire function) was dissolved….non from the rest 15 team members were Less Effective 5. In fact the remainder were hovering around Enterprising 30 & effective 45…I have hard time understanding Mr. Save’s response of us being non performers….I guess what he meant that not all were non-performers but few like us were simply not needed, makes me wonder why????
First they needs to answer why all employees were moved to synte private limited from synte limited just before layoff. All laid off employees were given letters in syntel private limited letter head while they were employees of synte limited.
Syntel standard practice was to put low performing employees in PIP plan and reevaluate after 6 months and then decide to keep or remove the employees
After enjoying tax breaks it has become fashionable In IT industry to label employees as nonperforming just to subvert government rules.
IT firms are misusing SEZ rules.
How come this company suddenly finds 20%-30% work force non performing when it performance review bell curve expects 5% to to categorized as less effective.
Syntel should be blacklisted , the way they were treating employees whom they laid off. I can not imagine as I am one of them.