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Employee union complains against Infosys’ non-compete clause

The union has asked the relevant authorities to carefully scrutinise covenants issued by Infosys as there is inequality of bargaining power
Last Updated 20 April 2022, 17:37 IST

Pune-based employee union Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES) has filed a complaint against non-compete clauses in Infosys's employment agreements with its IT and BPO employees.

It has written to Union Labour Minister Bhupender Yadav seeking his intervention to remove such “arbitrary, unethical and illegal clauses from employment contracts.” A non-compete clause prohibits employees from joining rival companies for a specified period. NITES has also sent a copy of the complaint to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).

It is being said that the IT major imposed a non-compete clause that bans the employees from working for the same customers, who they had worked with in the company for the last 12 months, in rival firms for six months after they quit Infosys. It also prohibits them from being in the employ of the clients if they had worked with them in the twelve months before they quit Infosys.

Responding to the development, Infosys said in a statement that it is a standard business practice in many parts of the world for employment contracts to include controls of reasonable scope and duration to protect confidentiality of information, customer connection and other legitimate business interests. "These are fully disclosed to all job aspirants before they decide to join Infosys, and do not have the effect of preventing employees from joining other organisations for career growth and aspirations".

The rival firms named in the offer letter for IT services are: TCS, Accenture, IMB, Cognizant and Wipro. While for business process management (BPM), it identifies four additional companies which includes: Tech Mahindra, Genpact, WNS Limited and HCL.

"Between 65-70 employees have registered their complaints with us. And most of them have either already resigned or are planning to do so in due course", Harpreet Saluja, president, NITES, told DH.

The union has asked the relevant authorities to carefully scrutinise covenants issued by Infosys as there is inequality of bargaining power between the employer and employee.

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(Published 20 April 2022, 17:37 IST)

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