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(From
left) E Raja, Girish Bhave, Advocate Anoop Awasthi, Dilip Pawar, Harpreet Sahuja and Padmaja Pawar and others have formed Forum for IT Employees in Pune. |
15/1/2018
PUNE: Following
the layoffs in various software firms, employees working in information
technology (IT) industry have formed a union in Pune. Forum for IT Employees
(FITE) announced its registration as Maharashtra's first trade union for
employees in the IT sector. The newly formed trade union received registration
number PN4845 under the Trade Unions Act, 1926.
The union has already has received 5,000 online registrations
and over 150 registrations in person, said its office-bearers. This is the
second union for IT employees in the country, second to Karnataka State IT/ITES
Employees Union (KITU), Bengaluru. “The Bengaluru union was formed in line with
a political party. FITE is the first independent IT employees' union formed and
run by the IT employees," said Elavarasan Raja, general secretary of
FITE.
Pavanjit Mane was appointed as the president of FITE while
Padmaja Pawar and Vivek Mestry were elected as vice-presidents, Harpreet
Saluja and Basanagouda Patil as joint secretaries, and Velkannan was appointed
as the treasurer. "FITE is a collective that works across regions of
the country and is in the process of consolidating its efforts. We thank our
members and leadership teams and look forward to being registered in multiple
states in the near future,” a statement from FITE reads.
Prior to its registration, members of FITE who had been
affected by retrenchment had approached the labour commissioner and subsequently
the labour court. "When reconciliation at labour commissioner's office
fails, the case is moved to the labour court which has the powers to grant
interim relief as well as reinstatement to the affected employees," said
advocate Anoop Awasthi, who is representing the employees in the
court.
Currently, 17 cases are pending in the court while 72 are in
the process of reconciliation at the Pune labour commissioner's office. As
a union, FITE has shown resolve to tackle the problem of blacklisting and
negative feedback which is rampant in the IT industry, according to the members
present at the announcement event. "The issue of blacklisting needs to be
highlighted and dealt with. It is anti-democratic and illegal. Nasscom
(National Association of Software and Services Companies) refuses to even
recognise the existence of this list," said Girish Bhave of Lok Raj Sanghathan.
Along with Bhave, Dilip Pawar, head of Bajaj Auto Union and Shramik Ekta Mahasangh has pledged his support to FITE in order to spread their reach and form committees in every company. The recognition of the union by companies was described as an ‘uphill task’ by Mane, the president of FITE.
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