After a 24-year-old IT employee ended her life, her peers have started a campaign asking thousands of employees on the edge not to take the extreme step.

The Telangana Information Technology Association (TITA) has a piece of advice for all the stakeholders – employees, government and IT companies.

“The IT employees are under tremendous pressure around this time as they pass through the annual appraisal time. With recession impacting revenues and automation resulting in redundancies in jobs, IT companies have begun to reduce the number of employees,” Sundeep Kumar Makthala, Founder and President of TITA, told BusinessLine .

Instead of sacking them directly, they have begun to give them ‘the fourth’ rating, which indicates very poor performance. “The number of people that are given this lowest rank has gone up to 17-18 per cent this year from 9 per cent last year,” he said.

Roundtable meet

On Sunday, the association held a roundtable with like-minded people in the industry. Peers from other countries too took part in it, discussing ways to discourage young employees from taking their lives in times of job losses and recession.

Those who are given the fourth rating are supposed to improve their performance in 30-60 days. “If they don’t, they are sacked,” he said.

This fourth rating is reportedly the reason behind the death of Harini, 24, two days ago. “Once they are in this bracket, they are under tremendous pressure as it lowers their esteem. We appealing to the IT firms not to label their staff in this category,” Sundeep said.

“She was in the profession for two years. The prospect of losing a job can be a calamity for some people,” a staffer working in TCS said.

Demands

TITA has asked the Union and State governments to hire the IT staff who are sacked. “Several departments lack proper IT professionals. Hire the sacked employees to fulfil the tasks and give them certificates so that they can show continuity in their CVs,” he said.

The association has asked IT firms to pay six months salary as compensation to employees who are laid off. “This will act as a cushion to the sacked employees, particularly those at the mid-level with huge financial commitments,” the TITA President said.

The association will write letters to all IT companies and the Government to look into their demands in order to help IT sector employees cope with pressure.

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