Karnataka: Transferred MPS Employees Taken Back After Year-long Struggle

The management of MPS Ltd, Bengaluru unit, on October 5, 2019, withdrew its decision to transfer 207 employees from Bengaluru to Dehradun. The decision came after a year long struggle by MPS Ltd employees and Karnataka State IT/ITeS Employees Union (KITU). The employees, who are members of KITU, had also demanded an appraisal and payment of all the arrears from April 2018 to be paid, which the management agreed to after signing a settlement with the union in the presence of the Deputy Labour Commissioner at Karmika Bhavana, Bengaluru. The management has also ensured that all the irregularities in the salary slip and bonus calculation will be corrected; and all the four terminated employees including KITU MPS Unit President Comrade Sridhara ML will be taken back.

In a note to the media, KITU has noted that the company was harassing its employees by forcing them to accept the transfer. Those who denied the transfer were straightaway dismissed. Many were even forced to resign by accepting a mere compensation amount of one month’s basic salary. The management had resorted to a number of illegal terminations of those who questioned the forced resignation. The note also said that, as soon as the union elected the unit committee and a dispute was filed, the company had stopped retrenchment.

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Despite the matter being under the conciliation at Labour Department, the MPS management—violating Section 33 of the Industrial Disputes Act—illegally terminated 10 KITU members including MPS Unit Secretary Comrade Honnesh Gowda on September 18, 2018. Upon filing a dispute for violation of Section 33 of Industrial Disputes Act, the management was forced to reinstate all terminated employees along with continuity of service and wages.

The deputy labour commissioner had directed for a bilateral discussion between the management and these discussions began in September 2018. After multiple bilateral discussions and conciliation meetings, the management finally agreed on all the demands put forward by Karnataka State IT/ITeS Employees Union.

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KITU President Comrade VJK Nair, Secretaries Comrade Sooraj Nidiyanga and Shammi N, CEC member Comrade Praveen Ravi attended the meeting along with the office bearers of KITU MPS Unit Comrades Sridhara ML, Honesh Gowda and Edward Thomas. From the management’s side, Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary Suneeth Malhotra, Chief Operating Officer and BAU head Srinivasa rao and Adv. Sachin attended the meeting.

MPS is the world’s first outsourcing vendor in the publishing world, started in 1976.

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A member of KITU speaking to NewsClick said that this was not the first time where the management has come under scrutiny. He said that ever since 2017, the management has been mistreating the workers and few employees were terminated in 2017 too.