Wipro forcing employees to go on Loss of Pay during the pandemic

We received calls from many Wipro employees stating that Wipro management is asking its employees on the bench to go on Loss of Pay for a period of 3 months.  They refer to a policy called Allocation and Deployment policy and as per that policy, the employee has to get the next project within 2 months of being released from a project. If the employee did not get projects within 2 months, they have to opt for Loss of pay option for 3 months.  There is no guarantee for the employees to get placed after 3 months. The employee themselves has to apply for projects during this extended bench period and if they got allocated to new projects, they can join back into the organization after 3 months. If the employee still did not get the projects by the end of 3 months, the company will take action against the employee at the end of this extended bench period

A copy of the letter which is received by one of the affected employees is attached for reference.

NDLF IT Employees wing puts forth the following queries against the management against this illegal action carried out during this crisis situation:

• Wipro declared its last quarter (Q1) result with gross revenue of 149.1 billion INR which is an increase of 1.3% YoY and net income as 23.9 billion INR which is an increase of 0.1% YoY. This is an exceptional result during peak COVID 19 crises. After the last year’s Q4 results, Wipro declined to give any profit projection considering the uncertainty of IT industry during the COVID issue. But the result of Q1 beats the stock market expectation and share prices of Wipro rally over 19% after Q1 results which is the highest increase in a day for the last 3 years. There are various industries like Transport, Tourism, Film Industry which is struggling for the last 5 months without having a chance to open their business. Government of India is asking such industries itself to pay its salary to its employees. On the other hand, if a company like Wipro which yield such a huge profit even during this crisis situation force employees to go on loss of pay,  this is clear exploitation of the company to its employee during this crisis situation.
• Wipro added 7000 new employees during last quarter as per the last quarterly results. This is the biggest addition in the last few years in the overall count of employees. This is proving that the company is using this COVID-19 situation to retrench senior employees and recruit new employees for cost-cutting measures. Why Wipro is not using the free pool people instead of recruiting new people in this covid situation?
• Wipro reduced its quarterly performance-linked compensation to all its employees because of COVID-19 crisis. As part of this move, employees will lose a minimum of 5% to a maximum of 20% of their salary. In addition, Wipro asked every employee to apply 1-2 days leave compulsorily. Management is doing this move on top of getting huge profits and cutting down the salary. This is clearly meant to loot employees in the name of COVID-19 pandemic
• In legal terms, a layoff is referred to as a term where during pandemic or war of unprecedented circumstances, company can layoff employees by getting consent from labour department by paying partial salary. Rishad Premji, Chairman of Wipro in his press release mentioned that Wipro has no plan to lay off any of its employees. If Wipro is forcing employees to go on LOP, is it not called as layoff? Why Wipro is acting against the announcement of its Chairman? Did Chairman tell a blatant lie in front of the media as the happening in the company contradict his statement?
• Wipro has a strategy of applying a lock called N star lock which restricts employees in the bench to apply for projects. Many employees have already complained to our union against this illegal exercise of applying N star. These employees are shown exit routes in the past without allocating any projects after this lock is applied. If employees are moved to LOP, what is the guarantee that the company will recruit back these employees?
• Azim Premji, the former chairman of Wipro has donated 1250 Crores to the nation during this crisis situation. He is a well-known Philanthropist who donated a major portion of his wealth for charity. What is his say on his company doing this to its employees during the COVID-19 pandemic?

NDLF IT Employees Wing strongly condemns the action taken by Wipro during the COVID pandemic. We urge Wipro management to stop all such illegal activities and help in allocating projects to its employees instead of new recruitment.

We request you to forward this article to all your friends circle to create awareness among fellow IT employees. IT employees lag unity which makes IT companies to do all such illegal activities. There is an article that states 8000 IT employees committed suicide in the IT industry and the primary reason is this lack of unity among IT employees. There is a news article in the leading newspaper in Kerala that states even in Wipro, a 26-year-old female employee named Jeenamol Joseph committed suicide due to layoff. So forwarding this message will help your fellow IT friends to come out of the layoff crisis and hope you will do this.

We also request the affected employees to contact NDLF IT Employees Wing if they face such issues from Wipro management. Together we will fight against the illegal move.

NDLF IT Employees Wing
Mobile: +91-9003009641
Email: ndlfitunion@gmail.com