We were approached by an employee of a Gurgaon based BPO organisation Randstad. They had been forcing her in her pregnancy to step down as an employee. She had informed us that a couple of months ago she was a top-performing employee and since her delivery was coming closer and she would be eligible for maternity benefits, she was being pressured in the office by being put on PIP. She had also fallen sick in the office owing to her condition and as a result, she was admitted to a private hospital which was not covered by the insurance agency partnered with the office.
She had applied for reimbursement of the medical bill paid by her in the hospital but was ignored. She had also applied for her maternity leave which was legally about to start soon alongside the medical documents as proof of pregnancy. The next day she was informed by the office that there is no maternity leave policy in the organisation and was asked to resign or get terminated.
We, then vehemently condemned this vile act by the organisation and firstly asked her to not resign and assured her that she can’t be terminated as it would be illegal. We then sent out a legal notice to the organisation naming the HR and the manager who had harassed her with a 2 weeks time to respond.
After receiving the notice, their attitude flipped immediately. On the same day, she received a form by mail to apply for official reimbursement and within the next 24 hours, she received another mail approving her maternity leave and thereby agreeing to both the demands in 36 hours.
We, the All India IT & ITES Employees’ Union (AIITEU), have the privilege of congratulating our legal team on this success and the employee for reaching out to us and showing immense valour to put up the fight braving all odds. We would also like to add that the employee in the case was aware of her rights and did not resign under pressure and took the fight to the organisation by approaching the union. We would call upon all other employees of the sector, suffering from the illegal and unjust policies of their organisations to unionise and fight for their rights.
Revolutionary greetings and we solicit support from all news media with the widest coverage.
Thanking you,
Saubhik Bhattacharya,
General Secretary AIITEU (9830090202)