Coronavirus impact: Nasscom seeks govt help for IT sector's vulnerable employees

IT industry body Nasscom has sought financial relief package from the government to save jobs of vulnerable employees, who are working in business process management (BPM) firms and global in-house centres (GICs).

BPM and GICs provide finance, accounting, payroll, procurement, HR, supply chain, legal and other services to global, parent and domestic companies and to their customers. Of the total 40 lakh employees of the IT sector, the BPM constitutes over 10 lakh of the workforce.

"BPM/ GIC and parts of the IT Industry are operating at max 70 per cent capacity utilisation. Assuming 20 per cent of the industry is idling at home, that's a very large number. Salary costs would be huge," Nasscom told The Times of India

Nasscom has suggested that employees from these firms be paid minimum wages and statutory entitlements. The IT trade association has asked the government to bear the provident fund contribution of such employees and companies for the next three months.

Nasscom has also suggested the government introduce a furlough scheme so that lockdown does not risk the job of any vulnerable employee.

A rough calculation of Nasscom data shows that if the larger firms are excluded, about 4 lakh employees would be exposed to financial vulnerability. A majority of them would have a basic pay of about Rs 12,000 per month. Hence, this would mean that the industry and the government will have to chip in with Rs 480 crore relief package for these employees.

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