Statement on the release of IT Nanban portal by Government of Tamilnadu.

We from the Union of IT & ITES Employees (UNITE) a registered trade union (Reg. No. 3621/CNI) of employees working in IT and ITES industry for securing rights and welfare. 

On the release of IT Nanban portal released by the Chief Minister of Tamilnadu we place the following critics,

1. The portal claims to be the bridge between IT industry and the Government of Tamilnadu, but restricts the registration to use the portal’s facilities to only employers. We the IT and ITES employees are the 99% stakeholders of the IT industry, but the portal acts as the single window system between the 1% of the industry and the Government.
2. We learned that the portal has capability to file complaints the employers face which will be routed to the right department and fast tracked. We welcome such single window system, but we also like to highlight that same can be used for address the employees issues, like lack of job security, forced resignation, discriminatory performance appraisals, etc. We believe the digitization process is being utilized to address only the employers needs, and the employees needs are ignored, which is unfair.
3. The portal seems to also have capability to comment on policy matters of the Government by the registered entities. As the registration is restricted to only employers, the platform at current state excludes the employees, civil society and the general public on the whole to take part in policy making affairs. Information Technology is a common to all industry and starta of the society, enabling only a section of the society to take part in the policy making revolving around IT, is discriminatory and against the economical and social justice principles.

Therefore we accuse the current state of IT Nanban portal is a actually Nanban(friend) of employers and not of employees and the civil society. 

We demand the IT Nanban portal should be open to employees and civil society for accessing information, involving in policy making process and to file any issues employees face without any restrictions.