The first trade union body in West Bengal's IT industry said on Wednesday it would not enforce Thursday's general strike and those willing to go to work would not be stopped.
"We will not force anybody to participate in the strike. Those who want to go to work can do so," Somnath Bhattacharya, secretary of the new IT Services Association, told PTI on the eve of the all-India strike called by Left trade unions that is expected to paralyse life in the state.
ITSA's clarification came a day after CPI-M's trade union wing, Centre of Indian Trade Unions, said the IT industry would not be exempted from the strike. Bhattacharya said, "A lot of our friends and sympathisers in the IT sector are supporting our cause, but we are telling them that they should not take active part in tomorrow's agitation."
Dec 14 strike should exempt IT: Bengal CM
Asked whether it meant that the IT industry would work normally tomorrow, he said, "That I cannot say, because public transport may be affected as workers there can participate in the strike, and we should not be held responsible if IT workers cannot come to work because of that."
Any transport arrangements made by IT companies for their workers would not be hindered, he said. The launch of ITSA last month had unnerved the nascent IT industry in West Bengal, which feared any enforcement of strikes would send wrong signals to clients who demand round the clock service.
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