The Information Technology (IT) services giant Infosys on Wednesday, February 20, dismissed allegations of using force or intimidation while terminating trainees at its Mysuru campus owing to performance-related issues. This was stated in a report by the Economic Times.
The company stated it is cooperating with labour department authorities and clarifying the circumstances surrounding the layoffs.
In an interview with PTI, Infosys Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) Shaji Mathew acknowledged that assessment failure rates this time were "slightly higher" than in the past but refuted claims that the tests were designed to fail trainees.
When asked whether these layoffs would harm Infosys' reputation as it begins hiring for FY26, Mathew reassured that the company's plan to recruit 20,000 freshers remains unchanged. He emphasised that new hires would receive top-tier corporate training.
Addressing accusations that assessment criteria, syllabus, and testing parameters were modified unfairly, and that intimidation was used to force resignations, Mathew countered that Infosys invests significantly in training and wants its trainees to succeed.
"There is training investment that goes in and we also pay them salary during the training... It is not in the interest of the company to let any of these people go... It is a loss to them of course, it is a loss to us as well," he stated, adding that the batch in question had failed internal assessments three times.
Regarding the Labour Ministry's directive for Karnataka's labour department to take action, and reports of officials visiting Infosys campuses in Bengaluru and Mysuru, Mathew confirmed that Infosys has been fully transparent in its discussions with authorities.
"Yes, the Labour Department has been in touch with us, they wanted to understand our training process and the assessment etc, and we have taken (them) through the entire training process, the assessment, and how this is a critical part of developing the future talent, not just for Infosys, but even for the entire IT industry," he said.
"They have been quite supportive, and I think they understand the entire process that we have been going through in terms of training and assessment, all of that. So we have cooperated with them so far...and there has been no further ask from their side," Mathew said.
When asked whether Infosys would consider reinstating the terminated trainees, Mathew responded, "There has been no further ask in terms of taking them back."
Earlier this month, Infosys, India's second-largest IT services company, faced backlash after over 300 freshers who had recently completed foundational training at its Mysuru campus were let go for failing internal assessments. Many of them had waited nearly two years for onboarding, which finally took place in October 2024.
Employee union Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES) urged the Ministry of Labour and Employment to intervene and take strict action against Infosys. NITES alleged that trainees were summoned to meeting rooms and pressured to sign "mutual separation" letters.
Mathew firmly denied claims of intimidation or the presence of security personnel.
"I can't even imagine us thinking about 'bouncers' and so on so forth. These are our trainees, and we don't need to bring in bouncers. So that is absolutely not correct. There was also concern that we did not allow people to stay on the campus. Again, there are people who wanted to stay on the campus, and we allowed them to stay on the campus," he clarified.
Infosys has now delayed an upcoming assessment for another batch of 800 trainees by a week, stating that the postponement is meant to give them additional preparation time.
"It is in our interest to see how we can help these set of trainees to get through the training programme, and that they come out successful at the end of the training so we can continue with them as employees in the company. We have seen the failure rate, and therefore we wanted to give them an additional opportunity and time to prepare," Mathew explained.
Additional resources, including doubt-clearing sessions and subject matter experts, will be made available to assist trainees.
Infosys provided severance pay for a month to the terminated trainees and offered outplacement services. Counselling support was also made available to help them transition.
Mathew emphasised that Infosys has long been committed to hiring and training fresh graduates, calling it a core part of the company's strategy.
"We've been training a very large number of freshers over the last decade, several decades actually, in fact, our training centre in Mysore is probably one of the largest corporate training centres as well, so it is a big part of our strategy and training and enablement," he said.
"It's also important that we get the right talent through this training programme. So we've got a training curriculum and an assessment methodology which has evolved over the last several years, and we really make sure that we get the right set of people at the end of the training," he said.
