Was IBM evaluation faulty, asks UNITES

BANGALORE, INDIA: IBM has been increasing its strength in India over the years, raising fears of job cuts in the US.

Now, the axe seems to have fallen on IBM India’s entry-level trainee programmers, with the company ousting 700 employees, as reported in the media.

An IBM spokesperson in Bangalore came out with a meticulously-written statement.

“IBM is a company which is driven by high performance culture, a place where employees are able to contribute at the upper limits of their potential, and continually build market-valued skills and capabilities in both formal training and experiential learning. In support of that expectation on the part of our workforce, we are pioneering new ways for our people to certify their skill levels as both a validation of their value to clients, and to reinforce the quality of our employees' personal skill sets.”

Worth noticing is that the statement does not comment directly on the job cut issue, though it speaks about employee training and reinforcing quality of employees. It is based on employee performances that IBM is issuing the sacking orders.

The Economic Times newspaper on Saturday reported that the company had asked entry level trainee programmers to quit based on their performance in aptitude tests.

In India, IBM has delivery centers in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Gurgaon, Kolkata and Pune.

Recently there were also reports of IBM’s plan to cut jobs in other countries. There have also been reports of IBM’s plan to freeze its US pension plan.

Meanwhile, rumor mills are doing the round also on the Internet. Forums on social networking Web site Orkut are discussing the issue with great interest. Though no names are mentioned, participants claim the rumors to be true.

Some on these forums say that the employees are shown the door, compensating them with added salaries and extra experience certificates.

Reacting to the news report, UNITES Professionals, a Bangalore-based organization, has raised objection to IBM India’s move to terminate ELTPs.

“Most of these ELTPs, who are engineering graduates are from reputed colleges and universities with good academic track records, who were selected by IBM after giving IBM's own test and evaluation (does that mean IBM evaluation is faulty?),” asked Karthik Sekhar, general secretary.

The move is wrong signal for youngsters and is questionable, said Sekhar.

© CyberMedia News