EbixCash Cuts 50% Salary Of 900+ Employees During Lockdown; NITES Is Fighting This Injustice

EbixCash, one of the leading financial exchange companies in India, has decided to deduct 50% salary of their employees.

National Information Technology Employees Senate or NITES, a non-profit devoted to fight the rights of IT employees, has decided to fight this injustice.

EbixCash Will Deduct 50% Of Salary

We have received evidence and testimonials from various employees, which confirm that EbixCash is deducting 50% salary of more than 900 employees based out of Pune and Mumbai.

HR officials have sent emails to all employees, announcing that due to the coronavirus impact, and the lockdown, employees will have to bear with 50% deduction in salary.

We have accessed the mails which the HR has sent to the employees, and it’s mentioned that this is a temporary arrangement, and a review will be done on April 20th.

But there has been no news of any review.

Why This Is Not Fair?

EbizCash has decided to retroactively deduct the salaries, effective March 21st.

And the mail from HR was sent to all employees on April 3rd.

This makes this entire exercise of reducing salaries unfair, and unethical. Employees have been giving their best, working 8-10 hours a day, meeting all targets. 

And suddenly, the company decided to reduce salary, that too retroctively.

Besides, as per Govt of Maharashtra notification, no employer can reduce salaries of any employees, during the lockdown phase.

Hence, this is illegal as well.

And there is another angle to it.

EbixCash is spending lavishly on marketing campaigns and partnerships, but refusing to pay their hard-working employees their fair dues.

From their website, we found that EbixCash is not only sponsoring Twenty20 cricket league’s teams but also have partnerships with leading news channels.

This clearly proves that they have the capital and liquidity required for supporting their employees, but they aren’t doing it.

NITES Will Fight This Injustice

National Information Technology Employees Senate or NITES, which is a non-profit organization devoted to fight the cause of IT employees, has decided to fight this injustice.

NITES was approached by several employees from EbixCash regarding this salary reduction, and in response, they have sent a letter to Labor Commissioner.

Commenting on this development, Mr. Vivek Mestri, Vice President
National Information Technology Employees Senate-NITES said,

“National Information Technology Employees Senate – NITES, Maharashtra, condemns the act of EBIXCASH Financial technologies who had declared salary deduction of 50% of their nearly employed 900 employees to
maintain PROFITABILITY of their business even under COVID-19 epidemic is underway. This illegal and unethical company policy was made applicable from 21st March 2020.
EBIXCASH Technologies has violated Maharashtra state Government’s and even central government regulations commucated to all companies.
National Information Employees Senate – NITES has demanded strict action against this
organization to Labour Commissioner, Pune and also related authorities to take strict measures against this EBIXCASH and set an example to avoid such insensitive behavior towards employees.”

Harpreet Saluja, General Secretary, National Information Technology Employees Senate – NITES said, “The employees of Ebix approached us regarding salary deduction issue and we filed a complaint against the company regarding malpractices and injustice that it has meted out to around 1,000 employees. The company has decided to deduct the 50 per cent salary of all employees at different levels, stating COVID-19 as the reason. This is completely in violation of the government’s directions. The labour commissioner’s office in Pune has issued a notice to the company.”

Here is the letter:

As per the letter, NITES has informed that they can seek legal action against the company as well.

This is a developing story. We will keep you updated, as more details come in.