Hyd police book Verizon for hiring bouncers while firing employees

The Madhapur police on Thursday registered a criminal case against Verizon Data Services India (VDSI) Pvt Ltd on Thursday for unleashing bouncers on employees and extracting resignations from them.

The layoffs began in Bengaluru on November 15, following which over 500 people were told to leave in Chennai and over 200 in Hyderabad on December 12 and 13, according to ForIT (Forum for IT Professionals).

The employees had earlier alleged that bouncers and counsellors were present in the room, when they were summoned to meet HR, and asked to leave, based on a 'management decision'.

"The bouncers pushed me back into my chair and held me by my shoulders till I signed the document. It was an awful experience and I can't begin to tell how demeaning it was," one of the retrenched employees had told TNM earlier. 

Following this, a case was registered against VDSI under Sections 506 (criminal intimidation) and 341 (wrongful restraint) of the IPC, ToI reported.

Last week, a petition was filed with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) against the alleged "inhuman practices" adopted by companies while laying off employees.

ForIT, representing over 70 techies who have been affected by these companies, in its petition seeks the NHRC's intervention to "stall the inhuman practices being adopted by the IT managements and to conduct an inquiry into the illegal means being used to retrench employees".

"The very intent of having bouncers in the negotiating room is nothing but an act of criminal intimidation on the part of the management," the complaint said.

However, Verizon has termed the layoffs as “role rationalisation”. 

Speaking to the media, Verizon’s spokesperson said, “As Verizon consolidates its strategy, we can scale, compete, and continue to be successful. Verizon’s IT, including Verizon Data Services India, is transforming into an engineering-centric, technology organisation. The transformation entails rationalising roles, which has an impact on headcount.” 

The company added, "We are doing role rationalisation not to meet a specific number but to match the talent with the requirements of the business for its future."