Techies don’t need to form unions, says V Balakrishnan

A senior figure from the Indian IT industry has said that techies working in the industry have good work ethics, are well-paid, and can even find opportunities outside the company that they work for; which is why they don’t need to form employee unions.

The noise about these unions being formed always arises whenever there is a bit of a downfall in the IT industry, but nothing concrete has ever been done in this regard, says V Balakrishnan, ex-Chief Financial Officer of Infosys.

"Work ethic is very good and salaries are high. Even today the attrition rate in the IT industry is double digit. It (talk of employees' unions) always fizzles out after some point of time. It never sustained," he told PTI. "But I think even if there is a union, I don't think it will impact the industry much because IT industry is one of the best paymasters in the country and second, the people find opportunities outside," he added.

He added that industries with bad work ethics and grungy treatment towards employees require employee unions.

"IT industry is not bad, IT industry people are well taken care of, well-paid, and they find opportunities. Even one of the bad years, this year, where growth rate has come down, the attrition is still double digit."

He even added that the reports about extensive job losses in the industry are exaggerated.

"If you look at all the leading companies, none of them are talking about huge job losses; they are all talking about the regular performance-based attrition, that is normal in the industry. So, to some extent the scare of job losses is exaggerated," he said.

(Image source Huffington Post India)