Industry body of IT companies in Kerala not to join all-India trade union strike

Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], November 25 (ANI): The Group of Technology Companies (GTech), the industry body of information technology (IT) companies in Kerala, has decided not to participate in the one-day all-India strike called by trade unions on Thursday to protest against Central government's "anti-labour" policies and privatisation bids.

Binu Jacob, Secretary of GTech, said that IT companies are working for timely delivery to customers and such strikes do not serve any purpose

"There are other ways to protest. It's not by not doing work we should register any protest. The IT companies are coming back on a growth trajectory after the slump due to COVID-19 and at such a scenario we don't want to lose a day's work," Binu Jacob told ANI.

GTech represents IT companies across the state, with its membership coming from the three government-owned IT parks - Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram, Infopark in Kochi, Cyberpark in Kozhikode, and various companies outside the IT parks in the state.

"Presently we have more than 200 IT firms as our members covering 75 per cent of the IT employees in the state. For the IT sector, timely delivery to customers including overseas is a real term target and if we participate in such strikes, it will hamper our stated goal," he said

Commenting on COVID-19's impact on the IT companies, Binu Jacob said, "It took three months to get back on track and plug revenue leak. Now, things are normal in large IT companies. GTech had carried out a survey taking a sample size of 98 IT companies to understand the COVID-19 impact. When large companies did perform well, the small companies with 20-30 employees suffered really badly. About 15 per cent small IT companies closed and another 15 per cent are on the verge of closing."

GTech had given representation to the government for aiding the small IT firms tide over the COVID-19 induced crisis. (ANI)