Due to COVID-19 outbreak and crisis, top IT firm Cognizant has begun terminating its bench employees. This move has come up after the business has taken a hit due to coronavirus pandemic.
The terminations are mostly taking place at the associate level (mostly mid-level employees) and above. Sources to Moneycontrol states that the employees who were on bench for more than 35 days are being questioned; after they could not secure a project within the given time that is leading to termination of the employee.
According to Moneycontrol report, an email to an employee read as, “… (We are) left with no other option other than to terminate your employment for reasonable cause of failure… to secure work allocation and being in the bench for a longer period with full salary.”
The mail further stated that the employee will have to attend a personal hearing to explain why he or she was on the bench for more than the allowed period of 35 days. If the employee does not appear for the hearing, the company would consider the absence for proceeding with the matter.
Meanwhile, an executive from the firm added that poor performers too were being asked to leave.
Moneycontrol in its report also asserted that the Chennai-based IT union All India Forum for IT/ITeS Employees had written a petition on June 12 to the Chennai labour commission and another letter to the deputy commission of labour (Central), New Delhi on June 22 concerning this issue.
In the letter, the union said that the renowned company is forcing employees to resign as they are unable to secure the project in the given time. “The respondent terminated illegally and unethically number of employees recently using this pandemic situation,” the letter read.
The IT union in its press release also highlighted that there are close to 18,000 employees on the bench and over 27,000 rated with poor performance.
Responding to the claims, Cognizant spokesperson in a statement said: “Performance management is a normal process across all companies in the IT industry, including Cognizant. While Cognizant does not comment on rumor and speculation in the marketplace, we would like to clarify that recent third party allegations regarding a specific number of job actions are not accurate, not based on facts, and were not announced by Cognizant. Cognizant continues to hire at all levels in India and globally."
Moneycontrol has seen copies of both the letters before filing this story.
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