If a private job employee is trying to switch his company then the current standard of a three-month-long notice period seems to be very tedious when an attractive offer is present in the market.
Dilemma With Private Employees
It is ironic that the new employer wants them to join within one month but they are not ready to relieve their employees earlier than that as the notice period is three months long.
The same dilemma comes when a prospective employer hesitates to hire an employee knowing that the person can’t join immediately or within 30 days since the person is obligated to serve a 90 days notice period to the existing employer.
This situation becomes a cause of worry for many who are looking for a job switch and effects negatively.
A Petition For Change
Addressing the same issue, a petition which is having more than 21,400 and counting signatures on Change.org which demands a reduction in 90 days notice period at the IT and ITes industry.
They have called the three months serving a period as ‘cruel and creating a situation of bondage labor in India’ and asked for 30 days for better productivity.
The petition led by Nikesh Jain who has written to the IT minister Sri Ravishankar Prasad.
The petition said, “I have served the software industry in leadership positions for many years now. I personally know of many cases where people were not even getting interview calls because of their long notice period. They had to resign without having any offer in hand just to make themselves eligible for interviews. Imagine the stress and anxiety these people would go through.”
Further, he wrote, “It is also causing huge productivity loss for the industry because when people are checked out how can they focus on work for 90 long days? The long notice period is not helping our startups ecosystem because they are not able to find the right talent quickly and at the same time employees are losing opportunities. The 90 days of the notice period is creating an artificial barrier for people to switch jobs,”.
“Indian IT industry mostly serves the US IT industry which has an “At will” employment policy. So there is no justification why Indian IT companies have 90 days as their notice period. The same companies who have 90 days as their notice period expect people to join in less than 30 days which is just not fair. It is also a breach of the equal employment opportunity act where people with 90 days of notice period are not invited for interviews,” he added.
Moreover, the petition humbly requests the Minister to look into this issue and decrease the notice period to 30 days which is more than enough to do a smooth transition.
It is expected that this move will help the Indian IT industry achieve its potential, as mentioned in the petition.