After Rishad Premji taking over the reins of Wipro from his father, Azim Premji, the Company has announced a high single-digit average salary hike for its offshore employees in India. Its onsite employees, primarily working in the US and Europe, have received a low to single mid- digit salary hike.
According to media reports, the salary hike ranges between six per cent and eight per cent for junior-level staff and entry-level employees with an experience of one to five years.
For employees working in the domain of machine learning and artificial intelligence, special incentives have been announced.
While on one hand Wipro’s IT employees are receiving incentives, on the other some 100 workers from the soap-manufacturing unit of Wipro Enterprises in Tumakuru, Karnataka are demanding increase in wages.
Wipro has various businesses under its gamut such as consumer care, lighting, infrastructure engineering and IT. In 2013, the non-IT businesses were demerged to form an independent entity known as Wipro Enterprises.
In 2012, the Wipro Employee Association (AITUC) demanded an increase in the basic salary and various other allowances, such as dearness allowance, city allowance, and service weightage. According to the management, the total increase demanded by the employees stood at Rs 9392. This was a 100 per cent increase in their salaries, which was too high and the Company could not afford it. After the management met with the Union, they placed their final offer of a Rs 2600 increase in the per month salaries, but the Union demanded Rs 3071.
The matter reached the industrial tribunal, which gave its judgement in favour of the workers granting all their demands, but the management appealed in the High Court. On 28 May, the HC sent back the case to the tribunal for re-examination.
The management argued that the industrial tribunal, by mistake, had assumed that the net profit of Wipro Enterprises was Rs 500 crore.
The management also argued that similar increments are given to workers in other factories.
