Labour Minister Santosh Lad met with the management of the Mysuru campus of Infosys to discuss the recent layoff of about 350 to 400 freshers. During the meeting, Lad reportedly brought up the matter of lack of transparency when it comes to layoffs in the IT space., as well as performance assessments.
It was the Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES) that wrote to the Ministry of Labour seeking intervention to ensure justice for the laid-off freshers. The layoff and ensuing media attention has put Infosys’ hiring procedures and labour-law compliance under the spotlight.
Shaji Mathew, chief human resources officer, Infosys, reportedly told PTI that the company would cooperate with the Labour Department’s ongoing inquiry into the incident by providing them all the information and details sought. He also maintained that Infosys has not faltered in terms of compliance or transparency.
Mathew has reportedly assured all the employees and stakeholders that Infosys is taking this issue very seriously and will continue to prioritise employee well-being as it has always done. He also asserted that Infosys has never violated labour laws or regulations in any way. However, he is reported to have admitted that this time the number of failures in the internal assessment was a wee bit higher than previous years but denied that the tests were made tough on purpose with the aim of failing more trainees than usual.
When Infosys had failed the trainees earlier this year, it had stated that the dismissals were due to trainees failing to clear internal assessments despite being given three attempts. Infosys emphasised that its evaluation system, in place for more than two decades, is designed to maintain high talent standards for its clients.
However, NITES disputed the company’s explanation claiming that the number of terminated employees was higher than reported and labelled the dismissals as “illegal, unethical, and in violation of labour laws.” These freshers were inducted in October 2024 but were suddenly asked to leave and given letters of ‘mutual separation’. This was termed highly unfair since these trainees had already waited patiently for two years to be formally onboarded despite having received offer letters. And what was most disappointing was that Infosys had made an internal assessment the basis for the layoff.
