The Karnataka State IT/ITeS Employees Union (KITU) has started a campaign to protest and protect the interest of around 10,000 techies among other employees of IT major Accenture which has planned and retrenchment across all verticals.
As per the media report quoting Accenture CEO Julie Sweet, as many as 25,000 people (5 percent of total workforce) are likely to be fired from Accenture across the world. India has the largest Accenture employee base of over two lakh employees and following the decision to fire 5 percent staff, at least 10,000 people stand the risk of losing their jobs. KITU strongly condemns this illegal and inhuman decision taken by the management of Accenture, says a release by the trade union forum.
“According to the labour laws, companies that hire more than 100 employees (in Karnataka ‘300 employees’ after the recent amendment in Industrial Dispute Act) need to obtain approval from the government in order to execute layoffs. Rebranding a layoff by arguing that employees voluntarily resigned when they were, in fact, forced to resign, is also against the law. KITU urges the employees to refuse to resign if asked to do so by the company,’’ it stated.
The association has extends support to the employees of Accenture and has urged the management to respect the law of the land. KITU also demanded urgent intervention of the government to this matter and urged strict actions if the company resorted to illegal retrenchments. KITU has called upon all the IT/ITeS employees to come forward in solidarity with the employees of Accenture and also against the inhuman practice of mass retrenchments.
The Australian Financial Review (AFR) reported on Tuesday that Accenture CEO Julie Sweet, in an internal staff meeting streamed online in mid-August, said, “In a normal year, we transition out about 5% and we hire to replace them, because we are in a demand scenario. Right now, we’re not in a demand scenario, so if we manage out the same percentage of people and don’t replace them, it allows us to continue to invest and preserve some people who have lower chargeability for when the market comes back.” AFR said Accenture is looking to cut at least 5% of its global workforce.
However, Accenture maintained that every year, as part performance process, the company practices dialogue with employees about how they were performing, areas for improvement, their potential to progress, and whether they are a long-term fit for Accenture. And that this year, across all parts business and all career levels, the process is on to identify approximately 5 percent of people as lowest performers, and these individuals will transition out of Accenture.