Hyderabad High Court issues notice to Telangana, Tech Mahindra over mass layoffs

Mass layoffs have turned into a nightmare for software engineers in most tech hubs.

The Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday issued notices to IT giant Tech Mahindra and Telangana's labour department officials over mass layoffs. The court has given them three weeks time to reply to a petition filed by employees of TechM over the issue of 'unlawful' mass layoffs.

High Court bench of Justice M S Ramachandra Rao issued the notices while hearing a petition filed by Sudhakar Suddala and three other retrenched employees of TechM. The petition sought to appraise the court of mass layoffs in IT sector that was turning into a nightmare for employees.

The petition is a fallout of an audio clipping from Tech Mahindra that purportedly contains a recording of a conversation between a Human Recourses executive and an employee. "Cost optimisation is taking place in the country. If you can put in the papers, we will be treating it as a normal exit. If not, we will send you a termination letter. Don't expect any benefit from the company, including your experience letter or the salary," an HR executive in purportedly telling an employee in the audio recording.

The petitioners alleged that the HR department of the company was pressurising employees to tender their resignations in a manner that made it look like they quit voluntarily. The petitioners had earlier approached the Telangana labour department but to no avail. Joint commissioner of labour, Ranga Reddy set a conciliation process but the company went ahead and terminated the employees.

OneIndia News