Karnataka labour office sends notice to Amazon

Bengaluru: The Karnataka Deputy Chief Labour Commissioner has sent notice to Amazon India with regard to unethical and illegal layoffs in the company.
“We are highly thankful to the Ministry of Labour and Employment for the prompt action initiated to safeguard the interests of Amazon employees. We are looking forward to justice for employees. This is a sigh of relief for Amazon India employees for the time being,” NITES President Harpreet Singh Saluja said.
The Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES) is hoping for the scrapping of the unethical Voluntarily Separation Policy introduced by Amazon India, he said.
On November 19, Saluja had shot off a letter to Union Labour Minister Bhupendra Yadav seeking necessary action and an inquiry into the delay regarding unethical and illegal layoffs in Amazon.
Saluja rapped Amazon for clearly violating the existing provisions of Indian labour laws that aim at protecting the workers’ rights.
“It is pertinent to note that a worker who has served for at least a year of continuous service cannot be retrenched unless served a notice three
months in advance and prior permission from the appropriate government,” he said.
The employer has to submit the application, seeking permission to retrench its employees along with the reasons to the government under the Industrial Disputes Act, Saluja said.
NITES shot off the letter to the Centre after receiving a complaint from Amazon employees about the company’s VSP.
Saluja said, because of this illegal VSP, the livelihood of thousands of Amazon employees and their families have become vulnerable.
The company has also given a deadline to the employees till November 30 to complete this process, he informed.
“Essentially, a layoff is a condition where the employers are constrained to deny work to their workforce owing to conditions that bring forth a temporary inability to keep their business going which is clearly not a scenario in Amazon’s case,” he said. (UNI)