Infosys delays onboarding of nearly 2,000 freshers from 2022 batch

Infosys

The wait continues for nearly 2,000 freshers who were offered positions by Infosys in 2022 but have yet to be onboarded, according to individuals affected by the delay who spoke to Moneycontrol.

The said roles are for System Engineers and Digital Specialist Engineers. Moneycontrol learns that these software engineers were asked to take two pre-training sessions, with the last one being as recent as August 19.

It is also being alleged that many candidates haven’t yet received the credentials to login to the online portal for the pre-training sessions yet, which were to begin on August 19.

Moneycontrol has reached out to Infosys for a comment, the story will be updated as and when the company responds. In July, the Bengaluru-based company had said that a small portion of the earlier hirings were pending.

The tale began when the company reaching out to the candidates, who were issued offer letters in 2020, a couple of months ago. Since then, candidates have complained that multiple rounds of pre-training sessions and assessments have made them apprehensive about the whole process of hiring. They say when offer letters were already issued in 2022 and even after assessments as recent as August, why are they being asked to go through the process repeatedly.

The salary of a System Engineer commanded Rs 3.6 lakh per annum while the position Digital of Specialist Engineer fetched Rs 6.5 lakh per annum, according to the people mentioned above.

Pune-based IT employee union Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES) has filed a request to the Ministry of Labour & Employment to investigate the company for ongoing “exploitation and unprofessional treatment” of 2,000 engineering graduates who were selected for System Engineer and Digital Specialist Engineer roles during the 2022-23 recruitment drive.

Nonetheless, about 50-60 candidates have received offer letters from the stable of Digital Specialist Engineers, people aware of the matter said.

The country’s second-largest software exporter sent offer letters back in 2022 but did not on-board the candidates after the IT industry faced a slump. This phenomenon, however, is an industry-wide issue. Fears of a looming recession in IT companies' major markets and the absence of discretionary spending led companies to pause hiring, leading to a multi-decadal decline in headcounts.

Infosys had hired over 50,000 freshers in financial year 2022-23 from campuses, which plunged to nearly 11,900 college graduates in FY23-24, CEO and MD Salil Parekh, said in the company’s annual report released on June 3.

This came at a time when the company posted its first ever full-year headcount decline in over two decades.

While the first pre-training session lasted for over four weeks, the second one was supposed to be around six weeks, which hasn’t started yet.

“Their onboarding process was supposed to be that our training would take place in Mysore, and still, we trusted them and gave the pre-training exam. We were just expecting the result, but what did they do? Again and again, sending pre-training emails,” one of the above-cited candidate said.

One candidate said he received his pre-training date on July 1, with one Infosys Human Resource official saying the results would be announced within two days for which the joining dates would be by September 2.

The candidate, along with several others, appeared for the exam on July 24. Post which, it is alleged that candidates received another pre-training email stating that this time the exam would be held offline.

“How can we trust that this won't happen again? Now, I need justice as I have wasted 2.5+ years because of Infosys,” the candidate said.

Several candidates have attempted to reach out to Infosys, but without success.

“We are calling on the government to take immediate and strict action against Infosys to ensure that such exploitative practices are halted and that the rights of these young professionals are protected,” Harpreet Singh Saluja, President, NITES, said in a statement.