Infosys under fire as axed employees allege rigged assessments

Bengaluru: The National Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES) has condemned Infosys for alleged mass terminations, accusing the IT giant of manipulating assessments and exploiting loopholes to sidestep labour laws.

NITES President Harpreet Singh Saluja urged government intervention, calling the dismissals "inhumane and abrupt."

In a virtual press conference held on Wednesday, several affected employees claimed Infosys deliberately toughened its internal assessment process to engineer mass failures and justify terminations. "In 2022, Java and SQL tests were relatively simple. But after we joined in October 2024, the difficulty level suddenly increased. The passing percentage was raised from 50 percent to 65 percent, and negative marking was introduced, making it nearly impossible to pass,” said one affected trainee-employee.

Another trainee-employee alleged that Infosys had assured them negative marking would not apply to third attempts, only to later renege on this promise. "It was a planned move to fail us and push us out without formally calling it a layoff," he said.

Saluja also criticised Infosys’ hiring policies, alleging that trainees were unknowingly onboarded as apprentices under the National Apprenticeship Training Scheme (NATS) rather than as full-time employees.

"The offer letter never mentioned they were apprentices. These trainees waited 2.5 years for onboarding, only to be placed in a government-subsidised programme where Infosys receives ?9,000 per trainee per month," he said.

Adding to their distress, terminated employees claimed they were denied experience letters despite Provident Fund (PF) deductions, which are typically applicable only to formal employees. "If we were never employees, why was Infosys deducting PF from our salaries?" one trainee questioned.

The NITES President warned of mass protests if corrective action is not taken. "If a corporate giant like Infosys can discard employees without consequences, what message does this send to the entire industry? Are employees just numbers on a balance sheet?" he asked.

Saluja revealed that the issue has now been escalated to the Central Government after previous complaints were allegedly dismissed at the state level. "Last time, the Karnataka Labour Ministry shielded Infosys, claiming complaints lacked employee names. This time, 5,700 affected employees have submitted grievances directly to both State and Central Governments," he said.

The Central Labour Ministry has since forwarded a report detailing the complaints to the Karnataka government. However, Saluja accused Infosys of deploying diversionary tactics, insisting that its Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) only applies to permanent employees while remaining silent on the mass termination of trainees.

NITES accused Infosys of orchestrating "silent layoffs" by spreading dismissals across multiple locations to avoid public backlash. "This time, however, they laid off 5,700 employees in one go, exposing the scale of this callous decision," Saluja alleged.

He further claimed that many trainees were left stranded outside the Infosys Mysuru campus late at night, without transport assistance. "They were forced to find their own way to bus stands, railway stations, or airports. A company of Infosys’ stature should not treat its employees like disposable assets," he said.

The affected employees have urged policymakers and labour authorities to intervene, calling Infosys’ actions a betrayal by one of India’s largest IT firms.