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India’s largest technology employer TCS recently added a new term to the crowded lexicon of managementspeak in India — ‘involuntary attrition’. This was the term it used to describe those it was — to use the earlier phrase in favour — ‘letting go’ for various reasons, ranging from under par performance to — here comes another favourite industry phrase — ‘skills mismatch’.
Involuntary is right. Post the economic meltdown, and with the Indian economy growing sluggishly, the number of firings has soared, as under-pressure managements struggled to contain costs. This means a lot of people are re-entering the workforce — with no jobs in sight, no policyto cover temporary unemployment, and with dimming prospects of ever getting a job back, especially if their skills have been declared redundant.
According to media reports, around 15,000 techies have lost their jobs in Bengaluru over the last one year alone. There’s even a body which has been formed in Bengaluru to represent the interests of tech employees (the India Technology Employees Centre), which is planning to organise public protests against tech sector sackings.
But public protests — unless, of course, one is backed up with some political muscle, as was in the case of the 900 cabin crew Jet Airways tried to sack a few years ago — accomplish nothing, other than perhaps a few seconds of fame on news television. A survey in 2013 found that one in three urban graduates was unemployed. There are no numbers for those who fall into less glamorous sectors but an Assocham-YES Bank survey last year estimated that the mining ban alone had resulted in 10 lakh job losses.
What happens to these ‘involuntary’ attritees? Our explosive population growth has focused policy attention solely on job creation for new workforce entrants. For those who are forced to leave it midway, there is nothing.
This is something which needs urgent policy intervention. We have some sort of skilling infrastructure in place but nothing for re-skilling. Without systems and support, many once-productive members of the economy slip back into the category of ‘working poor’ — somehow surviving.
It’s high time they got a helping hand.
Senior Associate Editor
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