Govt Asks Capgemini To Reinstate 300 Employees They Fired During Lockdown; Conciliation Meeting Arranged

IT behemoth Capgemini has been ordered by Govt to immediately reinstate 300 fired employees in Pune. A Conciliation meeting between the employee’s representatives and Capgemini has also been arranged on July 13th, to sort out this matter.

More details here.

Govt Orders Capgemini To Reinstate Fired Employees

During the lockdown which started from March 25th, IT major Capgemini terminated around 300 employees in Pune, citing various reasons.

NITES, a prominent nonprofit which is dedicated towards helping IT employees raised this issue, and filed a complaint with the Labor Commissioner.

Based on the complaint, the Labor Commissioner office in Pune has ordered Capgemini to immediately reinstate those employees who were fired during the lockdown.

A Conciliation meeting too has been arranged on July 13th, which will be conducted between Capgemini representatives, and NITES General Secretary Harpreet Saluja.

The details on how these employees will be reinstated can be discussed in this meeting, and how the employees who have been fired can be helped.

Reacting to this, Harpreet Saluja, General Secretary, National Information Technology Employees Senate NITES said, “Since April we had been receiving complaints from employees of Capgemini. The employees had sorted National Information Technology Employees Senate NITES help as they were purposely put on bench and were forced to resign. The CEO of Capgemini Ashwin Yardi on 6th April 2020 imposed an unlawful leave policy which is against Maharashtra State Government’s GR dated 31 March 2020. The company has illegally deducted earned leave of employees which is indirect loss of wages. Though the Maharashtra State Government’s GR clearly mentioned that no employee should be terminated but still Capgemini illegally terminated employees under such difficult circumstances. The employees are unable to appear for interviews and join any other company and are struggling to survive. Recently Hon’ble CM Shri Uddhav Thackeray ji has also condemned the employers who are terminating employees. We thank Labour Commissioner Office for taking cognizance of our complaints and issuing a notice of conciliation meeting to Capgemini stating immediate reinstatement of employees terminated by Capgemini under lockdown period. We urge all Capgemini employees in Pune to connect with us immediately if they were terminated or were forced to resign by the company under COVID19 lockdown. We are looking forward for the #JusticeforEmployees to be served as soon as possible.”

We are in possession of the letter which was issued to Capgemini regarding reinstatement of fired employees, and the Conciliation meeting. 

Commenting on this development, Vivek Mestri, National Information Technology Employees Senate-NITES said, “NITES is working aggressively for justice for Employees and Also I am glad to inform all Employees in information technology sector that, many other Union’s across India are connecting with us.
Mr. Yeshwant Bhosle who is President of Rashtriya Shramik Agahadi is also with us and has filed complaint against Capgemini in labour commissioner office, Pune.
We hereby hope for fast action in this COVID-19 Epidemic situation against these companies who are not following labour laws etc. “

Unlawful Firing By Capgemini In Pune?

As we reported earlier, Capgemini resorted to unlawful way of firing employees during the lockdown period.

Not only they forcefully canceled leaves of employees, but also fired benched employees citing lack of performance and lack of projects.

A notice was also issued to Capgemini on this matter, and Govt had ordered the company not to fire any employees. 

We will keep you updated, more details come in.