Centre asks Karnataka to examine Infosys on delay in onboarding employees

This pertains to around 2,500 employees who were offered jobs by Infosys in 2022 but not yet onboarded

Bengaluru: The Union Labour Ministry has directed the Karnataka Labour Department to look into the alleged ‘exploitation of young IT graduates’ by the Bengaluru-based IT giant Infosys Ltd.

The issue pertains to around 2,500 employees who were offered jobs of System Engineer (SE) and Digital Specialist Engineer (DSE) roles by Infosys in 2022, but have not yet onboarded.

Following an email complaint by Harpreet Singh Saluja, President of Nascent Information Technology Senate (NITES), an IT union, on 28 August, 2024, the Centre took cognizance of the matter, requesting Karnataka to take suitable action in a letter dated September 3, 2024.

“In the email attached it has been requested for intervention in the matter to protect these young graduates from exploitative practices carried out by the companies (Infosys). Since the appropriate government for action under respective labour law in this matter is the State Government, you are requested to look into the matter and take suitable action under intimation to the applicant and this office,” the letter read.

NITES had sought the central government’s intervention back in June, and again in August, after which, Infosys issued around 2,000 offer letters with the confirmed joining date in October 2024.

However, more than 500 of these candidates await onboarding dates from the company. Infosys declined to comment to DH on the matter.

Frustrated with the two-year delay, candidates who were promised jobs but not taken on-board, sought help from the Pune-based IT union. Two of the aspirants who spoke to DH, confirmed that they haven’t been onboarded even after confirmation from Infosys for joining their Mysore campus way back in 2022. 

The role they applied for, was accepted in mid 2022, however, a joining extension mail followed, a month after. Ever since then, they have received only auto-generated mails while several calls have gone unanswered.

“Please be informed that, date of joining (DOJ) will be decided on our business requirements, and also, as of now we do not have any update on the new DOJs in coming months” the mail, examined by DH reads.

Apart from the delay, Infosys had also asked several candidates to take unpaid pre-training sessions as well as assessments for four weeks in July and six weeks in August. “Failing these assessments would lead to deferment to the joining dates,” the mail read. 

In a recent interview, Infosys CEO Salil Parekh had assured that the company will honour the job offers extended to new graduates and that they will proceed with onboarding, despite some changes in the dates.