IT union flags Wipro onboarding delays, files labour ministry complaint over 250 freshers left waiting

Bengaluru: The Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES), which represents IT professionals, on Monday filed an official complaint with the Ministry of Labour and Employment against IT services firm Wipro's onboarding delays that affect over 250 freshers across multiple states.

In its complaint, Harpreet Singh Saluja, President, NITES, said that these 250 + freshers were selected through campus hiring, issued Letters of Intent and in several cases even received confirmed onboarding emails with joining dates and locations.

"Despite this, Wipro failed to onboard them and has kept them waiting for six to eight months without any written explanation, joining date, or formal rejection. Repeated follow ups were met with silence or automated replies citing vague business requirements. During this period, the company has continued onboarding other candidates, leaving these selected students in uncertainty," he claimed.

The Letters of Intent issued by the company did not clearly or transparently disclose that onboarding could be delayed indefinitely at the company’s discretion without any outer time limit, according to NITES' complaint.

More than 250 candidates have approached the union from multiple states including Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and other regions.

During the company's Q3 earnings, Wipro said it is expecting to hire 7,500 to 8,000 freshers for this fiscal year, down from its earlier target of 10,000. The company has hired only 400 freshers in the December quarter, and so far in the last three quarters of this fiscal, the company has hired close to 5,000 freshers. The company's Chief Human Resource Officer Saurabh Govil said, "In the next quarter, we'll be looking at ramping up 2,000 to 2,500 people from the campuses. Our lateral hiring will continue, and it will be more project-based and skill-based," he said.

An email sent to Wipro regarding onboarding delay did not elicit any response.