'Bonded labour' at IT companies, BPOs — Maha govt to look into complaints: Report

The Maharashtra government has formed a panel to look into complaints of bonded labour at IT companies and BPOs, according to a report by The Mumbai Mirror.

The committee, which met for the first time on June 11, has received several complaints that IT companies are withholding severance pay for laid-off employees and enforcing 'unfair' bond terms on new hires.

The panel found that IT companies sometimes asks employees to pay a fine of Rs 75,000– 1 lakh as penalty for resigning before their bond term ends. It found that a small portion of employees’ salaries are kept as deposits till the end of the bond term.

"The IT sector is one of the biggest job providers for youngsters and many of them are face problems during recruitment and with the bonds that they are asked to serve. We will look into all of these complaints,” the article quoted Devang Dave, a member of the committee, as saying.

Some IT companies have also kept the documents of campus recruits for many years, the report said. The committee has asked the state department to direct IT companies to cease the unfair bond practices and return the original documents within 30 days.

“We have asked the Labour Department to issue notices to firm against which we have received complaints from retrenched employees who were sacked unfairly,” Dave said.

Moneycontrol couldn’t independently verify the report.

The Labour Department is working on an online portal to help employees from the IT sector file their complaints. The 10-member committee has proposed legislation to regulate jobs and enforce labour laws in IT companies, the report stated.

The panel, led by Maharashtra Labour Commissioner Rajeev Jadhav, will meet once a month. It comprises of government-appointed members from Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur.