In a shocking and controversial move, multinational tech giant Infosys laid off an estimated 400 trainee employees from their Mysuru training facility on Friday, February 7. It is said that more terminations are imminent. While the company claims that employees ‘voluntarily’ signed their release agreements, those affected tell a different story — one of coercion, intimidation, and utter disregard for their dignity and well-being.
Among the employees unceremoniously sacked was 24-year-old Gayatri (name changed). On Thursday, February 6, she received an email summoning her for a meeting the next day, regarding the assessment held after the conclusion of training. She had failed the tests held a month ago. “You are required to maintain confidentiality, hence do not discuss this, or share this calendar with anyone,” the email read.
It meant only one thing – termination.
TNM spoke to four trainees, some of whom had waited nearly two years to be onboarded. They allege that the assessments were designed to fail them, allowing the company to cut costs.
Gayatri had been dreading this day. Ever since she failed the assessment, she has been suffering from depression. “I was devastated after receiving the email. My seniors said that such an email implied that I would be asked to leave the company. I did not want to attend the meeting. I had a mental breakdown.”
Like other employees who were summoned for the ‘confidential’ meeting, Gayatri’s electronic devices and bag were confiscated by the security guard when she entered the Infosys campus. The security personnel were in army fatigues, she recalls. She was then escorted into a cabin where a Human Resources (HR) staffer coerced her into signing the “mutual separation agreement”.
The agreement read, “You have knowingly and voluntarily chosen to enter into this agreement and have not been forced or pressured in any way to sign it.”
“I signed it unwillingly. I did not want to quit the company. They wasted two and a half years of my career. It was my dream job. But they forced me to sign the agreement,” Gayatri says.
As part of the ‘voluntary’ separation agreement, Infosys offered one month’s salary – a meager Rs 25,000 – as compensation. While there were allegations that the company had hired bouncers to intimidate employees, trainees TNM spoke to denied this. That Infosys had created an atmosphere of fear and helplessness was, however, undeniable.
Once the agreement was signed, the company took back the laptop given to the employees and escorted them to a bus that took them back to their accommodations. They were then asked to leave the campus immediately. They only had till 5 pm that day to vacate the premises.
“Some people fainted and had mental breakdowns after the meeting. They had to be taken to the hospital,” Gayatri recalls.
With no time given to arrange for travel, Gayatri had to book a hotel and spend a night before heading back to her home in Andhra Pradesh. “Women were forced to fend for themselves. Some of our seniors helped with the accommodation by offering their rooms. The company did not consider that it would be unsafe for women to travel at night,” she says.
“It was humiliating and traumatising. They asked us to leave immediately without showing any consideration. We were thrown on the road,” says Raju (name changed), another terminated employee.
No onboarding for two years
Gayatri, who graduated in 2022, cleared Infosys’ interview for the position of system engineer in the same year. But like many others, she was left hanging for nearly two years before finally being onboarded in October 2024, that too only after numerous emails and a legal intervention.
It was only on September 2 and 3, 2024, that Infosys provided offer letters for 2000 campus hires made in 2022, according to the Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES), an organisation working for the welfare of IT employees. Before this, on August 20, NITES had filed a complaint with the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment regarding the delay in onboarding.
The lull in the IT industry was felt not just by Infosys, but by most other companies across the country. According to Money Control, “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 headcount.”
The 2022 lull was felt by freshers hired by other companies too. A TNM story from October 2022 shows how tech giant Wipro had revoked the offer letters after candidates successfully completed their training. It was said to have been an effort to relieve the pressure on the company’s profit margins that the appointments would make.
Training and assessment
According to Gayatri, the company gave them online ‘pre-training’ from July 2024, during which period they were not remunerated. “Pre-training was unheard of earlier. They made us attend online sessions without offering any clarity on the onboarding process. After a while, they told us that we will have to clear some exams in December. They just wanted to extend the pre-training.”
Infosys requires trainee system engineers to clear the assessment within three attempts. Those terminated on February 7 had failed to clear the tests. However, many allege that the tests were deliberately designed to fail them, giving the company an excuse to cut costs.
The trainees are required to clear two tests – F1 (Java) and FA2 (database management exams - DBMS).
F1 (Java) covers data structures, object-oriented programing, and programing fundamentals. Instead of just one coding problem as was the norm in previous years, the freshers say they had to clear three coding challenges. Additionally, the tests also included multiple choice questions. “Trainees have to score above 65% in both F1 and FA2 to clear the assessment. This is unfair,” says Rohan (name changed), another employee who was terminated. The cut-off was 50% in previous years.
The syllabus was also made overwhelming this year, the terminated allege. “It is not possible to cover the entire syllabus in the time given. Besides, they asked us to read up some of the topics by ourselves,” Gayatri says.
Among the 930 trainees who joined on October 7, only 160 cleared the assessment in the first attempt. An additional 140 cleared the test in the second attempt. “The company was lenient with the previous batches. Only three or four people would fail the tests. The fact that they made it difficult for us shows that, since the beginning, they never wanted to hire us,” Rohan alleges.
Infosys has however maintained that the freshers did not clear assessment and they simply followed the process. In a statement, the tech giant said, “At Infosys, we have a rigorous hiring process where all freshers, after undergoing extensive foundational training at our Mysuru campus, are expected to clear internal assessments. All freshers get three attempts to clear the assessment, failing which they will not be able to continue with the organisation, as is also mentioned in their contract. This process has been in existence for over two decades and ensures a high quality of talent availability for our clients.”
The terminations have triggered widespread outrage. NITES has filed a formal complaint with the Labour Ministry, accusing Infosys of violating the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.
NITES president Harpreet Singh Saluja has slammed Infosys' “unethical and illegal” actions, demanding immediate intervention. “It is illegal for the company to forcefully terminate the employees. The termination was not based on their performance. If it was, the termination letter would have cited performance as the reason. Instead, it says that the employees have voluntarily decided to quit the company,” he tells TNM.
He has demanded that the company reinstate all the employees terminated on February 7.
A recurring pattern
Alagunambi Welkin, general secretary of Union of IT and ITES Employees, said that forcibly terminating employees has become a norm in the IT industry. “It is absolutely illegal to terminate employees in such a way. This is a pattern — companies hire a large number of candidates as a result of poor decision making by the management, and in the face of a financial crisis, they sack the employees instead of taking accountability.” Other multinational companies like L&T and Wipro have done this in the past, he recalls.
Alagunambi says that the offer letter from a company is a legal document that assures the employee of guaranteed rights under the labour laws. However, companies that violate this do not face any action, because the government often overlooks these issues.
“The labour department does not list these complaints, making it easy for the companies to get away with it. The only remedy is approaching the courts, but it would take at least four years for the case to be heard,” he laments.
Insult to injury
The abrupt termination has left many employees feeling insulted. For 25-year-old Rishi (name changed), joining Infosys was meant to change his life. “I waited for nearly two years to be onboarded. Now just after four months, they have removed me from the job in the most humiliating manner. I regret joining the company, they have traumatised me. I don’t want to go back there,” he says.
Gayatri says that she was good at her studies while in college. Her cracking the interview for Infosys is testimony for that, she says. However, ever since she failed to clear the post-training assessment, she has been questioning her abilities. “My parents and teachers were very proud when I got the offer letter from Infosys. It was a dream to land a job at a reputed company. But when I failed to clear the test even after three attempts, my parents asked me if I had cheated in my college exams. When they say such things, I start doubting myself, questioning if I were ever good enough to work at a company like Infosys. The termination has taken away all my self-esteem and confidence,” she says.
Except for revealing that the number of employees sacked were “just about 300”, in an email to TNM, Infosys refused to divulge further details about the termination process.
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