The Union labour ministry has directed the Karnataka authorities to look into the delays in onboarding freshers by Infosys and take appropriate action under relevant labour laws, even though the tech giant has started sending joining dates to those awaiting appointment letters since 2022.
The labour ministry’s directive to state labour commissioner’s office follows a complaint by IT union Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES).
Infosys has delayed onboarding of 2,000 candidates who were selected for system engineer and digital specialist engineer roles during the 2022-23 recruitment drive.
The NITES had previously accused Infosys of “ongoing exploitation and unprofessional treatment” of these young engineering graduates.
The labour ministry, in a letter dated September 3, seen by Fe, has told the state labour department that the matter falls in its domain and hence it should look into it and take suitable action.
As reported, Infosys has begun sending out joining dates this week to the affected engineering graduates. Earlier this week, the company issued more than 1,000 appointment letters.
Harpreet Singh Saluja, president of NITES, confirmed that most of the 2,000 young graduates selected for the SE roles have received their joining dates.
Despite the progress, approximately 700 campus hires from the 2022 batch still await their joining dates, according to sources. These include around 200 DSE candidates from the 2023 batch, who had secured their positions after advancing “HackWithInfy” competition during their third year of engineering. The salary of a system engineer is `3.6 lakh per annum while the position digital specialist engineer is Rs 6.5 lakh per annum.
The delay in onboarding is attributed to the industry-wide hiring freeze precipitated by fears of a recession in major markets and a cutback in discretionary spending, which has led to a significant reduction in headcount across the IT sector.
Freshers who have received their offer letters are primarily those who have completed pre-training sessions, with the latest round occurring in July 2024.
Infosys is going through a challenging phase, having reported its first-ever full-year headcount decline in over two decades, despite hiring over 50,000 freshers in FY 2022-23, a number which dramatically dropped to nearly 11,900 in FY 2023-24.
“Infosys is honouring all the offers that it has made. Entry-level hiring is a key driver for Infosys to build talent for the future. As onboarding is always aligned with client requirements, we spread the joining dates of various batches to align with changes in project schedules and to ensure employees have access to the right training,” an Infosys spokesperson had told FE last month.