Verizon Data Services hires HR person to fire staff

HYDERABAD: After Verizon Data Services India which axed hundreds of employees from the Hyderabad campus as part of role rationalising exercise, more details about the entire termination process have been come out in the open.   Verizon reportedly hired an HR person on contract basis to carry out the firing process with the existing workforce overseeing it. This is done because companies do not want in-house HRs to face retaliation from the fired employees.

Mr Kiran Chandra, member, Forum for IT Professionals in Hyderabad, said, “It is a conventional thing followed by the US firms, wherein they hire a contracting firm to fire employees. This is probably the first time they are doing it in India. However, in the end, it is the internal workforce that is executing it, making the contracting firm as front face.” The company issued a statement, saying, “Verizon denies any use of force or intimidation against employees”.

However, Mr Kiran Chandra alleged, “If they have not intimidated, why the managing director of Verizon India apologised to the employees for the manner in which the entire layoff exercise was done. The separation document states that the terminated employees are refrained from suggesting peers about injustice also, which is violation of basic human rights. This is also another set of intimidation. They have-n’t responded on the need for using henchmen either.”

Mr Vinay Kumar Pyaraka of Information Technology Employees Assocaition (ITEA) said, “This is the most inhumane way of layoffs and we have been receiving several calls from the aggrieved. We are raising a serious objection and will be reaching out to labour commission and the state human rights commission.” Meanwhile, ex-employees are reaching out to the labour commission. The petitions of the four retrenched employees have been accepted.