The times have been tough for IT employees in Kerala ever since the COVID-19 outbreak, with lay-offs and the uncertainties due to lack of openings. Now, their peers from various Information Technology (IT) companies are pitching in with initiatives to get them find opportunities elsewhere.
‘Support and Survive IT’ is one such initiative, a collective of various groups of techies, which has now opened a job portal exclusively for those who have lost jobs during this pandemic.
Applicants can submit their details, their skills, areas of expertise and resume to itparksjobs.com/ssit. A talent pool is being created, which can be accessed by the IT companies in Technopark, Infopark and other IT companies outside these parks.
Free service
“It is a completely free service for those who are desperately looking for jobs. Over the past few weeks since we opened the website, 340 people have registered for it. Twelve of them have already been placed in some companies, while the appointment process is ongoing for 15 of them. We are filtering the registrations to include only those who were laid off during this period,” says Renitjh Ramachandran of TechnoparkToday, which along with a few other groups is running the service.
Prathidhwani, welfare organisation of IT employees across Kerala, will be launching a similar job portal for laid off employees on Monday.
The website jobs.prathidhwani.com will work as a link between the laid-off employees and companies looking for experienced hands, without the hassles of waiting for a notice period. “We keep hearing of openings in various mailing groups, but it can be difficult to track for everyone. Consolidating it all in one place would be useful for those looking for jobs. We have reached out to companies to alert us whenever there are openings, so that these can be updated. The laid-off employees will also have accounts in the website, where all their details will be uploaded,” said a Prathidhwani representative.
The Hindu had earlier this month reported that IT companies in Kerala, including in Technopark and Infopark in Kochi, have started laying off employees, without even the necessary compensation.
Struggling lot
Although ‘performance issues’ are being cited in all cases, those who have got the pink slips say that this is just a reason being made up to cut down numbers and save on employee cost. Many of them have been struggling post the job loss as they have loans and EMIs pending, as well as rents and school fees to pay.
Prathidhwani had submitted a representation to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Labour Minister T.P. Ramakrishnan to give a direction to the companies to desist from such harsh measures during the pandemic period.
