Hyderabad: Verizon employee fired ahead of maternity leave goes to labour department

HYDERABAD: People across categories were laid off by Verizon earlier this week. But one of the heart-wrenching stories is that of a pregnant woman who was asked to leave despite requests and additional financial pressure she is due to face. The incident came to light after she approached an I-T welfare organisation in Hyderabad seeking a solution to get back her job. VDSI which has been conducting a Role Rationalising Exercise in eliminating job roles which do not have a future prospect, has been conducting retrenchment exercise in Hyderabad and Chennai campuses over past two weeks. Kavitha Kumari (name changed), a software tester with the company was forcefully asked to resign by the company’s HR personnel and Delivery Head, both males, in a secluded meeting room. 

“I requested them to consider their decision since I was in my third month of pregnancy but they did not agree to review their decision,” said Kumari to Express. “The panel suggested my insurance policy will cover my needs,” she said. “I broke down, but still they did not accept. For namesake they asked If I needed a doctor. I have approached the labour department against the illegal firing by the company,” she added. 

Kumari who is not keen on working for any other MNC as maternity leave will not be given until a year’s experience is put in place, has filed a writ petition with the Telangana State Labour, Employment, Training and Factories department. Interestingly, retrenched techies alleged that an exclusive training program was conducted for the stakeholders, who initiated the layoffs exercise in Hyderabad. 

“They had preconceived one-liners that were communicated to all of us. We are getting to know that there was a workshop where they were trained in Hyderabad before they started this process,” said a retrenched techie on condition of anonymity. “They did not have the sensitivity in altering their dialogue style while talking to employees with over 10 plus years experienced. That is what irked most of us,” he said.

Four retrenched techies have filed petitions with the Telangana State Labour, Employment, Training and Factories department contesting the company’s ‘illegal layoff’ exercise.  

Interestingly, not many techies are interested in approaching the labour department as many of them were provided with hefty severance packages. “For my twelve years of experience, they calculated basic pay for each year as a month. That amounted to twelve months of basic pay and two months of notice period pay,” said a 49-year-old retrenched techie.