From Band Inertia To IT Lay Off
“Things are changing” Lulu quipped. When parrots are lost in thinking they suddenly speak out their conclusion. A statement like that invariably arouses my curiosity. It is like Sherlock Holmes having discovered the culprit, is making announcement at the beginning of the story.
“What’s that Lulu? What are you referring to?” I kept aside my newspaper.
“Did you read the Tech Mahindra story? Eleven IT guys have gone to the Labour Court.”
“Yup! The lost their jobs. There have been mass retrenchments. They call them lay-offs in the American style. Poor boys and girls – what will they do now?”
“My sympathies. But a rubicon is crossed.”
“What does that mean?”
“They have taken a step which they can’t retrace. It will most probably influence future events.”
“Hmmm….. I would agree with you. This was in the offing, we saw it happening when a lady employee of TCS knocked the Court doors.”
“And there were the Wipro employees who protested and have approached the Court.”
“Right, I read this too. I really wonder what is happening, we will soon see Labour Courts having more disputes from the IT or ITES, than the manufacturing industry. It wasn’t like this earlier.”
“That’s because they were immediately employed by some other IT company. You don’t need Labour Court and Unions when other employers are waiting in the wings to offer a job.”
“That’s true” I said, “Our Society is so litigious that everything goes to the Court.”
“It takes severe feeling of injustice and helplessness for an employee to go to the Court. Even Unions take their grievances to the Court only when they can’t address it by negotiation or by show of force.”
“Hmmm….. You have a point, Lulu. In the case of Wipro employees, NDLF or New Democratic Labour Front is calling this as ‘This is the first petition filed by a registered trade union against any IT major in India.’”
“And the Tech Mahindra employees have knocked the door of the Court individually. So all avenues are now used. This is surely a development which can’t be missed.
“Why don’t we consider the employers’ plea? Economic forces are such that they have no choice. You can’t expect them to carry on with the redundancy of workforce. What is wrong with that?” I asked Lulu. “We can’t look at the problem only from one angle.”
“The point was severe feeling of injustice. It comes because the way things are handled.”
“Are you referring to the audio clip which went viral? And that leading to public apology of Anand Mahindra?”
“No. I am not. It is becoming fashionable to record audio clips. This is like the ‘sting operations’. Both caught the imagination of the public. I know from reliable sources, I am not referring to the Tech Mahindra audio clip, that audio clips are also misused like those sting operations.”
“Really?”
“There are instances where the employee who is going to lose the job engages the HR Manager in a long a repetitive conversation – he kind of sets up the HR Manager. When audio clip is played, it arouses public sympathy. But this is now oft used approach. It is losing its impact.”
“Wow! Never knew that!! Then why are you objecting to the ‘way things are handled?’”
“Look at how the system operates. Let me read out what New Democratic Labour Front has placed on their website.
We understand that the above categories [Employees unfairly rated as under performers and still working in the company and Employees unfairly rated as under performers, forced to resign, and left the company] were created primarily due to a concept called Band Inertia introduced by Wipro as part of appraisal system. This especially targets the senior employees. In addition, many other junior employees (who were not part of Band Inertia) also face the above situation.
Our members informed us that the logic of band inertia is as below:
If a person is in the same band for 7 years, he/she will be part of band inertia. In this case, performance of the employee is not considered and HR asked managers to mark “More Contribution Expected (MCE)” or “Unsatisfactory contribution UC)” to these employees.
If the employee is in a project, they are released to bench.
Primary target of Band inertia is people in Band B3 and above (Senior people whose experience is more than 10 years).
The main problem here is that if there are 1000 people in one band, only 50 positions are available for promotion. Hence, in 7 years, about 350 people will be promoted and remaining 650 people will come under Band inertia.
Many employees were rated as under performers as per Band Inertia policy or otherwise in a non-transparent appraisal system.
“Interesting. This will constantly force people to upgrade their competencies and move up the hierarchy ladder.”
“That’s right.”
“This is brilliant. Every product or service has a minimum price and a maximum too. Nobody will offer you a price below a certain level and nobody will pay you more than the max. This must be realised even by working men. If they are not ‘relevant’ constantly, they are outdated and no organisation will feed them.”
“Ha ha…. Easy to talk this economic theory. In practice it does not work out like that, every organisation realises that steady performers add good value. In any case, to create a process for mechanically weeding out a group of people deemed to be ‘non-performers’ by virtue of their populating a certain band for a certain duration is an invitation to trouble. You are not dealing with machines; you are dealing with men. Their performance and development is also a function of supervision and other factors. It is wrong to place entire onus of development on an employee.”
“You have a point there, Lulu. In many countries abroad an employee is not asked to leave as long he or she does assigned job well. That’s not the case here, they have been asked to leave.”
“That’s right. And perhaps more will go. The IT men never wanted to be identified as ‘industrial workman’, now they don’t mind. That is why things are not the same….”
“So?”
“Let us watch how the Labour Courts view ‘Band Inertia.’ In any case, sooner IT industry learns to manage their employees in a more humane way, the better it will be for all.” Lulu looked at me, hopped from the edge of my laptop where he was perched to my shoulder.
The bird’s hmmm…. Lulu’s eye view no longer means the same to me.
Vivek S Patwardhan
Sheer tears for lack of responsible leaders. Did they have the foresight? Of course they had. They also knew that as captains of industry, they could get away with it.
How consistent the capitalist thunderclap – people are good when profits are up, people are bad when profits are down. Superordinate principle of Profit as an alibi for private or personal wealth. As if, employees are not private citizens.
Courage and Ethics are polarities in immediate question. The leadership diamond is also however composed between Vision and Reality. Once considered Great Leaders, these captains are now commoners in business.
I like the narrative of dialogue with the conscionable parrot though.
This was written on the wall. People were ignoring the reality.
Dear VSP, Timely and well articulated points in a reader-friendly style, which is your own!
Just today I was chatting with some senior IT folks over breakfast and said “at this rate, IT industry will get back in vogue the position of Head- Industrial Relations which took a second seat to glossy HR titles over last two plus decades.
Your blog is an affirmation to my morning comment I believe. Coming someone like you the industry better heed!
Lots of pointers for reflection. But the answers are not begging the questions.
For me considering my DNA, constant transparent communication about the happenings in the industry and at the Company and sharing the same with employees and evolving consensus is the only solution.Its about how we treat employees.I remember the movie’ My Fair Lady’ which dialogue I quote:
Mrs. Higgins: How ever did you learn good manners with my son around?
Eliza Doolittle: It was very difficult. I should never have known how ladies and gentlemen really behaved, if it hadn’t been for Colonel Pickering. He always showed what he thought and felt about me as if I were something better than a common flower girl. You see, Mrs. Higgins, apart from the things one can pick up, the difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she is treated. I shall always be a common flower girl to Professor Higgins, because he always treats me like a common flower girl, and always will. But I know that I shall always be a lady to Colonel Pickering, because he always treats me like a lady, and always will.
Dear Vivek,
Provocative as usual. Do you remember at the start of our careers both in Public and Private sectors we had fixed salary scales and also had an EB inserted in the scale which stood for “Effeciency Bar” ? Where every five years or so if you did not cross the EB you would not get the increased increment and if you reached the end of the scale you remained there and did not even qualify to get an increment irrespective of how many years you were in that scale. This reminds me of that. Like they say the more things change the more they remain the same.
Well written lucid piece sir! Economic theory and institutional theory offer some explanation. When technological advances are slow and could be internalised and the labour market is tight, highly’skilled workers regarding themselves different from blue collar workers on the basis of non-tradeable skill use QUIT mechanism to move from one firm to another to advance his/her economic interest and the firm is no loser (as opposed to classic labour market theories which saw labour turnover as a malaise at both ends) as supply is relatively elastic. All that was needed was some simple HR function to make high-load rhetoric and offer facilities to create a “artificial professional identity” which ties the employees to one source of commitment (unlike in manufacturing sectors blue collar workers have dual).
Now the IT industry which is impacted more by exogenous factors and operating at the low end is seeking to upgrade and face a volatile and even diminishing markets. Market intelligence is poor in India – so long surpluses are high and the mood is buoyant and somewhat reckless expansion takes place which is potentially collecting deadwood. Exogenous shocks are occurring now and the dynamics is blowing hot because the industry is poorly equipped in many ways, the least so in employee management.
Now employees faced with poor employability (ex-firm is THE reason) and older in the labour market hierarchy and with globalization induced financial liabilities for high life styles (all are interconnected to dilute the blue collar identity and infuse individualism, marked pride, status, etc.) put their bets on litigation as a drowning person holds on to whatever s/he gets.
now the demand for unions is growing up and the supply of unions is matching up as IT industry is transforming from HR to IR set up. This is the dynamics which is bound to occur thanks to historical and structural factors.
Age discrimination is the most vulgar thing in the new age of HR, older or more senior more dispensable. i am witnessed burn outs among my friends who are in financial sector. late 40s to early 50s, i am still strong and going on in academics.
Apparently no one is asking important questions over social regulation of technology that we need? Is super efficiency needed to run systems in such a manner that it displaces disproportionately people rendering social irrelevance to those. I was shocked to hear of innovations that displace human function even in personnel functions!
there are technologies that serve greater good and others elite class.
OF COURSE THE BASIC FACT IS HIGH INEQUALITIES IN THE LABOUR MARKET EVEN IN THE WAKE OF SO CALLED COST OPTIMIZATION wherein bosses and shareholders bag gold and the metal decays as we travel down the pyramid….
Sir, after this long write up, i submit that social regulation of technology, building up domestic aggregate demand and addressing of inequalities of various types are solutions to this increasingly visible fiascos.
thanks, sir…keep writing….
as i said my two exe FPM (Ph.D.) students have been instructed by me to keep reading your postings and come for discussion…
This is interesting and reflects a wind of change. The Silicone Valley in US has long been unionized since 2004 with the Communication Workers of America organizing the Techies in Silicon Valley. Even Microsoft has a labor union representing software engineers. Its called Wash Tech and is affliated to the CWA. So unionism to the IT sector in India has come late but then better late than never.
its a very well written post sir.
I was forced to resign in Wipro. What to do?
Hello sir, i am happy to see our union name in in your article, we will prove ourselves as a good union soon.
Hi srini d, in Chennai wipro employees filed a case against forcible resignation by NDLF IT Employees wing. If u want more details contact NDLF IT Employees wing. Contact no 9003198576, mail id combatlayoff@gmail.com
“It takes severe feeling of injustice and helplessness for an employee to go to the Court. Even Unions take their grievances to the Court only when they can’t address it by negotiation or by show of force.”
3.2 crore litigations with majority litigant as government
Nice conversation which contains real-time problems that have been facing by employees. NDLF playing vital role for support employees.