Reacting to the red brigade's call for unionisation in the outsourcing industry, IT association Nasscom on Monday said working conditions in the business process outsourcing sector do not warrant formation of unions. "In the BPO industry the grievances of the workers are addressed promptly and the wages are good so there is no need for unions in the sector," Nasscom President Kiran Karnik said on the sidelines of a seminar on e-governance Conflux.
He said unions were needed in the sector where working conditions needed to be improved and individual cases of harassment were there but in case of BPO industry no such conditions exist.
"In the BPO industry in India working conditions are among the best in the world and complaints of individual workers are listened to and addressed," Karnik added.
As the employment in the BPO industry booms, the Left affiliated unions have started saying that the workers in the sector should have unions to protect their interests.
They have accused the BPO companies of violation of labour laws. They have said that any attempt to form a union or association by the employees is being curbed by threats of dismissal.
"There are no rules to govern the working conditions and occupational hazards have occurred in several cases without any remedy for redressal," President of Centre of Indian Trade Unions M K Pandhe had said in his letter to the government.
Backing CITU's stand, CPI-backed All India Trade Union Congress has also protested against the preferential treatment to the IT and BPO industry.
Remedies and laws should be strengthened to protect the interest of workers in the industry, the AITUC had said.
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