Industrial Relations in IT?

Young Sector
Relatively New Growing

Average Employee
Equivalent to highly skilled professional More autonomous than average employee in other sectors

Dynamic Sector
Growing rapidly Significant Number of Jobs ( 10 million Indians)

IT issues

Outsourcing of jobs due to Global Growth

1996 : American company CSC purchases Danish company Datacentralen ( data systems for public sector) PROSA ( IT union ) had bargaining rights for consultants and programmers Agreement on seniority based wages instead of individually based wages 2009 : PROSA accused CSC of underpaying Indians as per the salary amount rule under Danish Aliens Act

Danish Foreign Service reported CSC to the police and CSC paid the Indians

2009 : agreement between CSC and PROSA expires and until new agreement is formed , old agreement is valid

2010 : CSC suggests pay cut of 10% and increase in working hours because of economic conditions

After 30 meetings negotiations broke down on 8 Feb 2011

CSC locked out 120 employees ( not illegal ) and unusual because employer initiated industrial conflict not union

PROSA sent out strike notice effective June 1 2011. 330 employees on strike

23 June CSC was allowed to free itself of agreement with PROSA because of duration and intensity of conflict

CSC forms agreement with HK ( IT union ) less favorable than PROSA

Analysis of Conflict between CSC and PROSA

Outsourcing
Well educated workforce in non Western countries can do the work with lower wages 2008-2009 : Danish IT sector lost 5400 jobs

Pressure on Danish Unions

Danish wages are among the highest in the labor market Multinationals can use outsourcing as means of reducing Danish wage levels

State Owned Company Privatized

Streamlined operations Former privileged employees were threatened Vital data was handled by CSC so government could intervene if there were strike threats so PROSA could not take much effective industrial action

India : Union for Information Technology-Enabled Services

Started in 2006 2008 Large Scale Layoffs Other Important Issues
Played a significant part in Pratibha Srikanthmurthy (an HP employee) murder case and also lobbying for better working hour

Part of Global union UNI having 20 million members globally

Br. Christopher Ng, Regional Secretary, UNIAPRO, Prof. Philip Taylor Sterling University, Scotland

When top IT companies were laying off employees in the midst of the 2008 recession, Unites was actively involved in taking up the cause of the employees

Unites also signed collective bargaining agreements with smaller IT companies

Unites helped in the settlement of dues to the employees of Apex Geospatial in Hyderabad after the company shut down

Mission and Vision of UNITES

MISSION HISTORY Spanish-owned Santander UK started returning its Indian call centres operating since 2003 from Bangalore and Pune to Britain following a high number of complaints from customers. Around 500 young employees were losing their jobs A core value of UNITES to promote the active involvement and unity of employees that have been historically marginalized and silenced. UNITES serves as a vehicle for employees to build power. We build bridges between youth, families, and community members to work for community change. CORE VALUES 1. Challenges confronting IT, Call Centre & BPO professionals 2. Organizing & Negotiating IT, Call Centre & BPO professionals 3. Adoption of Action Programme 4. Adoption of Constitution

Current Scenario
Opened up UNITES Kolkata in mArch,2010 New Generation Network meeting held in Hyderabad,

March,2010- The focus of the forum was to impart to the participants

the necessity of unionism and knowledge for them to be unionists

Presently stopped operations due to lack of funds

Though, Unites is seeking funds from other international labour

federations but this does not look very promising

Outcome For PROSA

Flagship agreement for IT sector Significant number of members left PROSA

Lost Bargaining Rights

Lost Shop Stewards

Future of Trade Unions in IT

Industry will mature in a few years

Balance of Supply vs Demand of Labor will shift in favor of Demand

Options will be shifted from EXIT to VOICE Need for Collective Bargaining

A Comparison
Traditional Demand
Formation Members Leader Mostly less educated, poor class A need of a leader from outside is needed to negotiate with management Gheraos, strikes which often lead to Violence Highly educated, middle class Leader will be more like a facilitator

IT / Service Sector Higher Wages, Job Security

Basic Wages, living and working conditions

Form of protest