Indian IT firm Infosys has been accused of being “exploitative” after allegedly sending job offers to thousands of engineering graduates but still not onboarding any of them after as long as two years. The recent graduates have reportedly been told they must do repeated, unpaid training in order to remain eligible to work at Infosys.

Last week, the Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES), an Indian advocacy group for IT workers, sent a letter [PDF], shared by The Register, to Mansukh Mandaviya, India’s Minster of Labor and Employment. It requested that the Indian government intervene “to prevent exploitation of young IT graduates by Infosys.” The letter signed by NITES president Harpreet Singh Saluja claimed that NITES received “multiple” complaints from recent engineering graduates “who have been subjected to unprofessional and exploitative practices” from Infosys after being hired for system engineer and digital specialist engineer roles.

According to NITES, Infosys sent these people offer letters as early as April 22, 2022, after engaging in a college recruitment effort from 2022–2023 but never onboarded the graduates. NITES has previously said that “over 2,000 recruits” are affected.

Unpaid “pre-training”

NITES claims the people sent job offers were asked to participate in an unpaid, virtual “pre-training” that took place from July 1, 2024, until July 24, 2024. Infosys’ HR team reportedly told the recent graduates at that time that onboarding plans would be finalized by August 19 or September 2. But things didn’t go as anticipated, NITES’ letter claimed, leaving the would-be hires with “immense frustration, anxiety, and uncertainty.”

The letter reads:

Despite successfully completing the pre-training, the promised results were never communicated, leaving the graduates in limbo for over 20 days. To their shock, instead of receiving their joining dates, these graduates were informed that they needed to retake the pre-training exam offline, once again without any renumeration.

The Register reported today that Infosys recruits were subjected to “multiple unpaid virtual and in-person training sessions and assessments,” citing emails sent to recruits. It also said that recruits were told they would no longer be considered for onboarding if they didn’t attend these sessions, at least one of which is six weeks long, per The Register.

CEO claims recruits will work at Infosys eventually

Following NITES’ letter, Infosys CEO Salil Parekh claimed this week that the graduates would start their jobs but didn’t provide more details about when they would start or why there have been such lengthy delays and repeated training sessions. Speaking to Indian news site Press Trust of India, Parekh said:

Every offer that we have given, that offer will be someone who will join the company. We changed some dates, but beyond that everyone will join Infosys and there is no change in that approach.

Notably, in an earnings call last month [PDF], Infosys CFO Jayesh Sanghrajka said that Infosys Is “looking at hiring 15,000 to 20,000” recent graduates this year, “depending on how we see the growth.” It’s unclear if that figure includes the 2,000 people who NITES is concerned about.

In March, Infosys reported having 317,240 employees, which represented its first decrease in employee count since 2001. Parekh also recently claimed Infosys isn’t expecting layoffs relating to emerging technologies like AI. In its most recent earnings report, Infosys reported a 5.1 percent year-over-year (YoY) increase in profit and a 2.1 percent YoY increase in revenues.

NITES has previously argued that because of the delays, Infosys should offer “full salary payments for the period during which onboarding has been delayed” or, if onboarding isn’t feasible, that Infosys help the recruited people find alternative jobs elsewhere within Infosys.

Infosys accused of hurting Indian economy

NITES’ letter argues that Infosys has already negatively impacted India’s economic growth, stating:

These young engineering graduates are integral to the future of our nation’s IT industry, which plays a pivotal role in our economy. By delaying their careers and subjecting them to unpaid work and repeated assessments, Infosys is not only wasting their valuable time but also undermining the contributions they could be making to India’s growth.

Infosys hasn’t explained why the onboarding of thousands of recruits has taken longer to begin than expected. One potential challenge is logistics. Infosys has also previously delayed onboarding in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, which hit India particularly hard.

Additionally, India is dealing with a job shortage. Two years is a long time to wait to start a job, but many may have minimal options. A June 2024 study of Indian hiring trends [PDF] reported that IT job hiring in hardware and network declined 9 percent YoY, and hiring in software and software services declined 5 percent YoY. The Indian IT sector saw attrition rates drop from 27 percent in 2022 to 16 to 19 percent last year, per Indian magazine Frontline. This has contributed to there being fewer IT jobs available in the country, including entry-level positions. With people holding onto their jobs, there have also been reduced hiring efforts. Infosys, for example, didn’t do any campus hiring in 2023 or 2024, and neither did India-headquartered Tata Consultancy Services, Frontline noted.

Over the past two years, Infosys has maintained a pool of people to pull from at a time when an IT skills gap in India is expected in the coming years that coincides with a lack of opportunities for recent IT graduates. However, the company risks losing the people it recruited as they might decide to look elsewhere. At the same time, they deal with financial and mental health concerns and make requests for government intervention.

https://arstechnica.com/?p=2045697