Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Precarious Flexibilities: Employment Relations in the Indian Information Technology Industry

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Globalization, Labour Market Institutions, Processes and Policies in India

  • 571 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter examines the nature of employment relations in the Indian Information Technology (IT) industry. A detailed review of the regulatory foundations of employment in the industry is combined with insights into the evolving and often tenuous nature of employment-related flexibilities of both IT workers and IT firms. Recent trends in unionization and collectivization in the industry are examined in relation to labour market uncertainties. These are done by drawing linkages between labour regulation and an analysis of aspects of employment relationships in IT work, drawn from empirical field research conducted amongst IT workers in Bengaluru, Karnataka.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 149.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    This was especially true in 1961 when the Karnataka Shops and Commercial Establishments (SCE) Act was legislated, and the IT industry and IT work were almost non-existent.

  2. 2.

    The labour department in Telangana, a neighbouring South Indian State, summoned officials of IT firms, in 2017, to clarify about the extent of the layoffs (Vaitheesvaran 2017).

References

  • All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). 2017. “Statistics Dashboard”. https://www.facilities.aicte-india.org/dashboard/pages/dashboardaicte.php. Accessed on 10 June 2018.

  • Arora, A., Arunachalam, V. S., Asundi, J., and R. Fernandes. 2001. “The Indian Software Services Industry”. Research Policy 30(8): 1267–1287.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bain, P., and P. Taylor. 2000. “Entrapped by the ‘Electronic Panopticon’? Worker Resistance in the Call Centre”. New Technology, Work and Employment 15(1): 2–18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Balakrishnan, P. 2006. “Benign Neglect or Strategic Intent? Contested Lineage of Indian Software Industry”. Economic and Political Weekly 41(36): 3865–3872.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barley, S. R., and G. Kunda. 2004. Gurus, Hired Guns, and Warm Bodies: Itinerant Experts in a Knowledge Economy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Batt, R., Doellgast, V., and H. Kwon. 2005. “The Indian Call Centre Industry: National Benchmarking Report Strategy, HR Practices, and Performance”. Working paper 05-07. Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies (CAHRS), Cornell University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bhattacharjea, A. 2006. “Labour Market Regulation and Industrial Performance in India: A Critical Review of the Empirical Evidence”. Indian Journal of Labour Economics 49(2): 211–232.

    Google Scholar 

  • Budhwar, P., A. Varma, N. Malhotra, and A. Mukerjee. 2009. “Attrition in Indian BPOs: The Hidden Cost of Outsourcing”. The Services Industries Journal 29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Callaghan, G. and P. Thompson. 2001. “Edwards Revisited: Technical Control and Call Centres”. Economic and Industrial Democracy 22(1): 13–37.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chandrasekhar, C. P. 2003. “The Diffusion of Information Technology: The Indian Experience”. Social Scientist 31(7/8): 42–85.

    Google Scholar 

  • D’Costa, A. P. 2011. “Geography, Uneven Development and Distributive Justice: The Political Economy of IT Growth in India”. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society 4(2): 237–251.

    Google Scholar 

  • D’Cruz, P. and E. Noronha. 2013. “Hope to Despair: The Experience of Organizing Indian Call Centre Employees”. Indian Journal of Industrial Relations 48(3): 471–486.

    Google Scholar 

  • Debroy, B. and P. D. Kaushik. 2005. “Issues in Labour Law Reform”. In Reforming the Labour Market, B. Debroy and P. D. Kaushik (eds). New Delhi: Academic Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deery, S., Nath, V., and J. Walsh. 2013. “Why do Offshored Indian Call Centre Workers want to Leave their Jobs?” New Technology, Work and Employment 28(3): 212–226.

    Google Scholar 

  • Doellgast, V., Batt, R., and O. H. Sørensen. 2009. “Introduction: Institutional Change and Labour Market Segmentation in European Call Centres”. European Journal of Industrial Relations 15(4): 349–371.

    Google Scholar 

  • Doellgast, V. and E. Pannini. 2015. “The Impact of Outsourcing on Job Quality for Call Centre Workers in the Telecommunications and Call Centre Subcontractor Industries”. In The outsourcing Challenge, J. Drahokoupil (ed.). Brussels: ETUI.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edwards, R. C. 1979. Contested Terrain: The Transformation of the Workplace in the Twentieth Century. London: Heinemann.

    Google Scholar 

  • Emmenegger, P. 2014. The Power to Dismiss: Trade Unions and the Regulation of Job Security in Western Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Flecker, J. 2007. “Network Economy or Just a New Breed of Multinationals? Relocation of eWork as a Window to the Restructuring of Value Chains”. Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation 1(2): 36–51.

    Google Scholar 

  • Flecker, J. and P. Meil. 2010. “Organisational Restructuring and Emerging Service Value Chains: Implications for Work and Employment”. Work, Employment and Society 24(4): 680–698.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ganesh, V. and T. Simhan. 2017. “Will the Techies Raise the Red Flag?” The Hindu BusinessLine, 5 June 2017. https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/specials/india-file/will-the-techies-raise-the-red-flag/article9720603.ece. Accessed on 12 June 2018.

  • Gopalakrishnan, V. and V. Shroff. 2012. “Information Technology and Software Development Companies in India Categorised as ‘Factories’”. http://www.nishithdesai.com/information/research-and-articles/nda-hotline/nda-hotline-single-view/newsid/1239/html/1.html. Accessed on 10 June 2018.

  • Heeks, R. 1996. India’s Software Industry: State Policy, Liberalisation and Industrial Development. New Delhi: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heeks, R. 2015. “Indian IT/Software Sector Statistics”. https://ict4dblog.wordpress.com/2015/04/28/indian-itsoftware-sector-statistics-1980-2015-time-series-data/. Accessed on 20 May 2018.

  • Jacoby, S. M. 1998. Modern Manors: Welfare Capitalism Since the New Deal. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Joseph, K. J. and K. N. Harilal. 2001. “Structure and Growth of India’s IT Exports: Implications of an Export-oriented Growth Strategy.” Economic and Political Weekly 36(34): 3263–3270.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kattuman, P. and K. Iyer. 2001. “Human Capital Development in the Move up the Value Chain: The Case of the Indian Software and Services Industry”. In The IT Revolution and Developing Countries: Late-comer Advantage? M. Kagami & M. Tsuji (eds.). Tokyo: Institute of Developing Economies.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mazumdar, I. 2001. “EPZs and Their Workers in India: A Study of the Noida Export Processing Zone”. In Labour Issues in Export Processing Zones in South Asia: Role of Social Dialogue, A. S. Oberai, Sivananthiran and C. S. Venkata Ratnam (eds.). New Delhi: ILO.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY). 2017. “Fact Sheet of IT & BPM Industry”. http://meity.gov.in/content/fact-sheet-it-bpm-industry. Accessed on 10 June 2018.

  • Mulholland, K. 2002. “Gender, Emotional Labour and Teamworking in a Call Centre”. Personnel Review 31(3): 283–303.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murayama, M. and N. Yokota. 2009. “Revisiting Labor and Gender Issues in Export Processing Zones: Cases of South Korea, Bangladesh and India”. Economic and Political Weekly 44(22): 73–83.

    Google Scholar 

  • NASSCOM (The National Association of Software and Services Companies). 2014. “The IT-BPM sector in India: Strategic Review 2014”. New Delhi: NASSCOM.

    Google Scholar 

  • NASSCOM. 2017. “Jobs and Skills: The Imperative to Reinvent and Disrupt”. New Delhi: NASSCOM.

    Google Scholar 

  • New Delhi Television Limited (NDTV). 2017. “Anand Mahindra Apologises Over Manner of Techie’s Firing”. https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/tech-mahindra-bosses-apologise-over-manner-of-techies-firing-1722041. Accessed on 14 June 2018.

  • Noronha, E. and P. D’Cruz. 2006. “Organising Call Centre Agents: Emerging Issues”. Economic and Political Weekly 41(21): 2115–2121.

    Google Scholar 

  • Noronha, E. and P. D’Cruz. 2009. Employee Identity in Indian Call Centres: The Notion of Professionalism. New Delhi: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Noronha, E. and P. D’Cruz. 2016. “Creating Space: The Role of the State in the Indian IT-Related Offshoring Sector”. In Space, Place and Global Digital Work, J. Flecker (ed.). Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morgan, G. and M. Hauptmeier. 2014. “Institutional Theory in Comparative Employment Relations”. In The Oxford Handbook of Employment Relations, Wilkinson, A., Wood, G. & Deeg, R. (eds.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parthasarathy, B. 2004. “India’s Silicon Valley or Silicon Valley’s India? Socially Embedding the Computer Software Industry in Bangalore”. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 28(3): 664–685.

    Google Scholar 

  • Penfold, C. 2009. “Off-Shored Services Workers: Labour Law and Practice in India”. The Economic and Labour Relations Review 19(2): 91–106.

    Google Scholar 

  • Phadnis, S. and R. Ayyar. 2017. “IT industry slows, Indian companies ready for large layoffs”. Times of India, 31 October. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/technology-giants-prepare-for-layoffs/articleshow/58585806.cms. Accessed on 12 June 2018.

  • Poster, R. W. 2007. “Saying ‘Good Morning’ in the Night: The Reversal of Work Time in Global ICT Service Work”. Workplace Temporalities: Research in the Sociology of Work 17: 55–112.

    Google Scholar 

  • Raghavan, A. and A. Gupta. 2012. “Software Companies are ‘Factories’ as per New Court Ruling”. https://www.employmentlawalliance.com/firms/trilegal/articles/software-companies-are-factories-as-per-new-court-ruling. Accessed on 12 June 2018.

  • Roy, C., Scholarios, D., and P. Taylor. 2017. “The Recession Has Passed but the Effects Are Still with Us: Employment, Work Organization and Employee Experiences of Work in Post-Crisis Indian BPO”. In Critical Perspectives on Work and Employment in Globalizing India, E. Noronha and P. D’Cruz (eds.). Singapore: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sandhu, A. 2006. “Why Unions Fail in Organising India’s BPO-ITES Industry”. Economic and Political Weekly 41(41), 4319–4322.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sarkar, S. 2008. “Trade Unionism in Indian BPO-ITeS Industry-Insights from Literature”. Indian Journal of Industrial Relations 44(1): 72–88.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sarkar, Sandip and B. S. Mehta. 2010. “Income Inequality in India: Pre-and Post-Reform Periods”. Economic and Political Weekly 45(37): 45–55.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sengupta, S. and A. Gupta. 2012. “Exploring the Dimensions of Attrition in Indian BPOs.” International Journal of Human Resource Management 23(6): 1259–1288.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, C. 2006. “The Double Indeterminacy of Labour Power: Labour Effort and Labour Mobility”. Work, Employment and Society 20(2): 389–402.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, C. 2010. “Go with the Flow: Labour Power Mobility and Labour Process Theory”. In Working Life: Renewing Labour Process Analysis, P. Thompson and C. Smith (eds). London: Palgrave.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shyam Sundar, K. R. 2010. “Emerging Trends in Employment Relations in India”. Indian Journal of Industrial Relations 45(4): 585–595.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, P. and P. Bain. 2004. “Call Centre Offshoring to India: The Revenge of History?” Labour & Industry: A Journal of the Social and Economic Relations of Work 14(3): 15–38.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, P. and P. Bain. 2007. “Reflections on the Call Centre – A Reply to Glucksmann”. Work, Employment and Society 21(2): 349–362.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, P. and Bain, P. 2008. “United by a Common Language? Trade Union Responses in the UK and India to Call Center Offshoring”. Antipode 40(1): 131–154.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, P., P. D’Cruz, E. Noronha, and D. Scholarios. 2014. “‘From Boom to Where?’: The Impact of Crisis on Work and Employment in Indian BPO”. New Technology, Work and Employment 29(2): 105–123.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, P., E. Noronha, D. Scholarios, and P. D’Cruz. 2008. “Employee Voice and Collective Formation in Indian ITeS-BPO Industry”. Economic and Political Weekly 43(22): 37–47.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thite, M. and R. Russell. 2009. “Human Resource Management in Indian Call Centres/Business Process Outsourcing”. In Next Available Operator: Managing Human Resources in Indian Business Process Outsourcing Industry, M. Thite, and R. Russell (eds). New Delhi: Response, Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Upreti, P. M. 2018. “Engineering Crisis”. The Hindu BusinessLine, 11 May 2018. https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/blink/cover/engineering-crisis/article23849534.ece. Accessed on 10 June 2018.

  • Vaitheesvaran, B. 2017. “Telangana Labour Department Calls Cognizant to Discuss Layoffs”. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/telangana-labour-department-calls-cognizant-to-discuss-layoffs/articleshow/58601969.cms. Accessed on 14 June 2018.

Download references

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank Profs. Nikolaus Hammer and Glynne Williams for their regular, valuable feedback and Deepa Kurup whose incisive comments and edits make me appear to be a better writer than I actually am. Any errors are my own.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Doctoral Student, Department of Management, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK

    Secki P. Jose

Authors
  1. Secki P. Jose
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Secki P. Jose .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Professor, HRM Area, XLRI, Xavier School of Management, Jamshedpur, India

    K. R. Shyam Sundar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Jose, S.P. (2019). Precarious Flexibilities: Employment Relations in the Indian Information Technology Industry. In: Shyam Sundar, K.R. (eds) Globalization, Labour Market Institutions, Processes and Policies in India. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7111-0_8

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7111-0_8

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-13-7110-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-13-7111-0

  • eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation