'How Am I Supposed To Get A Job?'

'Our phones are taken away as we enter the room.'
'They are just asking us to sign without any discussion. If you ask for a discussion, they say, 'Sign first'.'

Infosys has laid off about 350 employees, who were taken on board in October 2024 following more than two-and-A-half years of wait after getting their offer letters, according to people familiar with the matter.

India's second-largest IT services company, Infosys had onboarded about 1,000 engineering graduates in October.

This move comes at a time when information technology companies have been cautious on fresher hiring due to muted demand in an uncertain macroeconomic environment.

Infosys said it follows a 'rigorous hiring process' for all its freshers.

All freshers get three attempts to clear the assessment, failing which they will not be able to continue with the organisation, as is also mentioned in their contract.

This process has been in existence for over two decades now and ensures a high quality of talent availability for our clients," the company said in a statement.

Affected employees, who were being trained at the company's Mysore campus, told Business Standard that the entire layoff process was being carried out harshly.

"Our phones are taken away as we enter the room. They are just asking us to sign without any discussion. If you ask for a discussion, they say, 'Sign first'," said one employee requesting anonymity.

The Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES) said it was filing a complaint with the minister of labour and employment demanding 'immediate intervention to uphold the rights and dignity of Indian IT workers'.

"According to complaints received by NITES," NITES President Harpreet Singh Saluja said, "the company has deployed bouncers and security personnel to intimidate employees, ensuring that they don't carry mobile phones and are left with no way to document the incident or seek help."

"When employees questioned the rationale behind this mass layoff, Infosys HR officials coldly responded that the company had never asked them to wait for two years, a response that demonstrates a complete lack of empathy for their struggles,"

However, the presence of bouncers on the campus could not be verified independently by Business Standard.

The affected employees say they were asked to leave after they failed to meet the minimum requirement across three attempts in a qualifying test, the syllabus and criteria of which were changed later.

"First, the company kept us on the bench for three years, and now they seem least bothered. We could have done well in the test, but it was extremely tough. Initially, we were told that there would be no negative marking in the third attempt, but now they have changed it," said an affected employee.

Infosys had sent offer letters in 2022 and these freshers were supposed to join in 2023.

However, the company did not onboard them as the industry was tackling slowdown due to global uncertainty.

The delay in onboarding of freshers was an industry-wide phenomenon. Players such as TCS, and Wipro too had acknowledged the delay in onboarding.

The biggest worry for those asked to leave is to face an uncertain and sluggish job market.

"For more than two-and-half years, we have been sitting at home and now this. How am I supposed to get a job?" another employee said.

"When we requested them to at least provide relieving letters with six months' experience, they declined."

Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com