The Hindu Business Line : Can IT sector do without unions?

Story so far: The city police finds that it has to tackle a new problem: Prank e-mails from students addressed to top leaders. Narendra, ACP, thinks of approaching the issue through education, to prevent young people from becoming unwitting criminals. At his request, I meet the undergraduate students of a neighbourhood college to alert them about the need to use e-mail responsibly. To many of the students, it was a revelation to know that e-mail travels through an unprotected Internet, ever exposed to many dangers in cyberspace!

Episode 150

The thought I'd left you with last week was on the critical need to educate young computer users on the vulnerabilities of e-mail, in order to ensure responsible deployment of the powerful and fast communication tool. "Dear Swati, with the growth of information technology and communication media, the malaise of any technological advancement, such as misuse of e-mail, should be prevented before it goes out of control," writes Sriram Kannan.

"Due to the irresponsible acts of a few miscreants, the entire public will have to pay the price if e-mail communication were made more stringent and brought under control. Evolution of new technology will be accompanied by exponential public usage, technological correction, continued usage with improvement followed by saturation. E-mail usage in India, I believe, is in transition" Interesting analysis. "With spammers and tricksters working day and night to block useful data traffic and bandwidth, it is high time that the youth are educated about the potential pitfalls that are emerging."

Sriram has a couple of suggestions to offer: "One, advise the young to report all spam that comes into their inbox. Though blocking spam is currently not possible, this small step by individuals could lead to improvement in the overall e-mail system. Two, since e-mail travels unprotected across the Web, youngsters should be encouraged to develop and adopt e-communities which would serve the dual purposes of improving relationships among like-minded people and helping the technologically `illiterate' gain basic awareness." Good ideas.

Krithivasan rues that the Internet only adds to the list of addictions. "Unfortunately, many users are not aware of the risks that come from using the Internet. How many are aware that the origin of all messages can be traced? It is foolish to think that message senders cannot be identified."

As in regular snail mail, etiquette is required for e-mail too, argues Krithivasan. "Phishing is another growing threat, which all users need to know and be doubly careful about. While most may ignore the bait in phishing attempts, some will be tempted to bite. That is where loss occurs. Any e-mail address that has been made public on the Internet (posting in forums, newsgroups or on a Web site) is more susceptible to phishing as the e-mail address can be saved by spiders that search the Internet and grab as many e-mail addresses as they can." Ah, that should give you a creepy feeling!

"This is why phishing is profitable for scammers; they can cheaply and easily access millions of valid e-mail addresses to send these scams to. Many have burnt their fingers in phishing scams by revealing their user-ids, passwords and so on, of their Internet banking accounts, and credit cards." Take care, therefore.

Woes of BPO workers

During the week, I noticed an unusual development, when driving to work in the morning. There was a crowd outside a local BPO (business process outsourcing) named `Fast Kaam BPO.' It was evident that most of the people assembled there were the company's employees. They were holding banners and flags that spoke of a trade union affiliation. A labour leader was addressing the employees. "Labour laws are routinely flouted by many BPO firms in India!" he said, and there were nods among his audience. There seemed to be a few who had come from other BPO units and they too addressed the gathering, and highlighted the difficulties they were facing.

I remembered how, about a year ago, the Haryana Labour Commissioner had asked Gurgaon BPOs not to employ women on night shifts. People in the IT (information technology) industry argued then that the laws were outdated. They also pointed out how the employers were providing transport and canteen facilities for BPO employees, be they men or women. In contrast, one doesn't find companies in other sectors being similarly sensitive to the needs of employees, they said.

But the tales at the union meeting near Fast Kaam BPO highlighted many negatives. "We contribute nearly five per cent of India's national economic output, but workers' rights are not protected," one speaker lamented. Another spoke about the arbitrary policies of promotion. Yet another read out how the staff worked extra hours but were not paid overtime wage.

I parked my bike and spoke to a few of the women staff who were cooling off at a nearby kiosk. "Is life really bad at the BPOs?" I asked them.

"Now that you ask, I can list out many problems," said one lady cheerfully. "The company gives us a new name, you know! I'm Samantha and she's Cathy, not our real names, though. Sometimes, it feels like we are in a big circus!"

Her friend, `Cathy' told me in a hush: "Our breaks are so meticulously monitored that we feel as if we are under constant surveillance. To add to our woes, many of the callers that we handle are arrogant! All this creates a lot of stress."

I asked `Samantha' if trade unions would solve all their problems. She gave me a blank stare and said, "Don't know. At least we are off for the day, collectively!"

They left to join the meeting, and I moved on, tossing in my head conflicting thoughts on the efficacy of trade unionism for the IT sector. Send in your thoughts by Friday.

Swati_CA@hotmail.com

Blog at: http://Swati-CA.blogspot.com

More Stories on : Trade & Labour Unions | Swati CA | Information Technology

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