Several reports have revealed that renowned software firm Cognizant is forcing its employees on the bench to tender their resignations.
The ‘Bench’ in an IT firm
In the IT industry, benched employees are those who do not have active projects, and are kept on the “bench” as a resource pool for future projects. An IT employee union based out of Chennai has now alleged that such employees in Cognizant are being forced to resign.
IT Employee Union comes into the picture
In a press briefing, NDLF said: “We came to know that Cognizant (CTS) is now actively pursuing to lay off, several of their employees at various locations in Chennai. Many of our union members have come to us complaining about the resignation threats made by HR over email and through telephone.”
As per NDLF, Cognizant is first benching the employees and then removing them from the projects. According to the allegations, Cognizant places an employee on the bench and gives him/her 35 days to upskill and find a project. After 35 days, 6 days extension is given, and if the employee is not able to find a new project within those 41 days, then the HR asks them to resign, and if they resist they are threatened by the HR.
The press release further said: “If the employee is not ready to resign they start getting threatening calls from HR warning that they will initiate the termination process. We also came to know that several employees were already sent out by the end of last month.”
