Techies fear retrenchment for being ‘redundant’
The recent incident of 103 tech professionals, mostly in the mid-level job roles, being retrenched from CDK Global has brought back the question of an employee’s sustainment in the IT space until the
Published: 19th July 2018 03:17 AM | Last Updated: 19th July 2018 03:17 AM | A+A A-
Image used for representational purpose.
HYDERABAD: The recent incident of 103 tech professionals, mostly in the mid-level job roles, being retrenched from CDK Global has brought back the question of an employee’s sustainment in the IT space until the retirement age of 58.
A look at the retrenchment processes initiated by several companies in the last one year shows that mostly the mid-level tech employees of the age group 35 - 40 years have been shown the door. Techies with 8 - 15 years of experience are the most vulnerable, whether in Tech Mahindra, Cognizant Technology Solutions, Wipro Limited, Verizon Data Services India (VDSI), or the latest CDK Global.
“I’m scared to think of what would happen once I am 35, as by then the industry would term me redundant. The companies prefer to pay four freshers and get high output rather than employ an experienced professional with a high pay package,” said Akshay Kumar, a techie. “An employee working on a project is billable revenue that the client pays.
But in the case of a project manager or someone of a higher level who oversees a project, the company bears the costs. In most cases, the expenses are huge considering their experience. Eventually, they become a liability, not an asset,” stated a senior AGM of a homegrown company, who prefers to remain anonymous.
Moreover, the industry reinvents itself every five years. “It started with Y2K, the .com bubble, the recession and now automation. A tech professional can sustain for a maximum of 50 years,” he added.
One year since court case was filed
In July last year, four professionals of Tech Mahindra had approached the High Court, with a plea against their forced retrenchment. Another batch filed a petition in October. In February, this year, 52 techies of VDSI approached the HC for relief. But none of these cases has come to hearing yet. “It’s been more than a year since I lost my job. My savings are almost exhausted, but there is still hardly any hope in getting my job back,” said one of the petitioners. “We request the government to intervene,” he added.
