Infosys has been cleared of charges of violating any labour law by the Karnataka Labour Department. The Department’s investigations have concluded that no employer-employee relationship existed between Infosys and the trainees (numbering about 350-400) who were terminated without notice recently. The impacted youngsters were, according to the Labour Department, only apprenticeship trainees and could not be called employees of the company. Moreover, these trainees who were being paid a stipend had not been given appointment letters. Therefore, their termination does not amount to any labour-law breach.
The Department is expected to finalise their report and present it to the government tomorrow, that is, 4 March 2025.
Officials from the Labour Department have been investigating the matter ever since the Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES) formally complained against Infosys for what it called unjust, unfair and illegal termination of hundreds of trainees.
The freshers were inducted in October 2024 but were suddenly asked to leave and given letters of ‘mutual separation’. They had already waited patiently for two years to be formally onboarded despite having received offer letters. Infosys had made an internal assessment the basis for the layoff. The company, however, has maintained throughout that the assessment has been part of the rigorous hiring process that Infosys has been known for; that that it has been in place for over 20 years now.
Associations representing information technology (IT) employees have condemned the Labour Department’s decision to give Infosys a clean chit in the matter. The associations feel that the Labour Department is violating labour ethics by ignoring the fact that even though the affected trainees were serving a training period, they had actively participated in live projects and worked to meet expectations and stick to timelines. The trainees naturally feel betrayed because the company took advantage of their work without giving them the formal status of ‘employees’.
The sudden termination had led to many of the trainees being left on the street with their future bleak, for some had been asked to vacate their accommodations immediately without any notice or time for preparation.
