Rising rupee;
IT, BPO employees may have to Saturdays
The appreciation of the Indian rupee against some currencies,
especially the US dollar, has come as good news for
many, but for those in the BPO and IT sector, it is
means no more Saturday night partying.
Several IT and BPO firms in Bangalore have decided
that their employees will have to work on Saturdays
too in order to counter the negative impact of the appreciating
rupee.
While IT firms are toying with the idea of working
on Saturdays, those working in the business process
outsourcing sector may have to put in an hour extra
everyday at work.
The BPO firms work all seven days of the week. On an
average, BPO employees put in 40 hours every week. However,
now with revised working hours, an employee would have
to put in 50 hours a week.
Whether the employees would start the shift early or
end late has not yet been decided.
BPO employees are, however, not happy with the idea
and say that this will only add to work pressure. They
argue that this move is unfair as they were not allowed
to relax when the rupee was not so strong.
Says Santhosh Sharma, a BPO employee, "It seems
as though we would have to put in extra working hours
at the end of the shift as starting early will make
no sense."
The IT and BPO sector, however, says that this is inevitable
and employees will have no choice to put in extra working
hours. Infosys Technologies' [Get Quote] chief mentor
N R Narayana Murthy said that the currency changes are
beyond the control of the IT industry and the industry
has to look at ways to increase productivity.
A source said that most IT and BPO firms are in discussion
with their clients to rework billing rates. This would
have to be reworked to accommodate every extra hour
put in by the service provider.
Sharat Kapadia, an IT consultant, said that currently
there are five working days for the employees in the
IT sector. However, now that could change. Employees
may have to work at least 10 hours on weekdays and six
hours on Saturdays.
The employees will surely be paid extra, he added.
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