The Union Labour and Employment Ministry has stepped in to address complaints of delayed onboarding by IT giant Infosys, asking the Karnataka government to take necessary action.
The intervention follows a complaint from the Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES), which highlighted the prolonged delay in hiring over 2,000 young engineering graduates. These graduates had been selected for roles such as System Engineer (SE) and Digital Specialist Engineer (DSE) during the company's 2022-23 recruitment drive.
According to the complaint, many of these candidates were issued offer letters as early as April 2022 but have since faced repeated delays in their onboarding process. NITES also alleged that these graduates were subjected to unpaid pre-training programs and additional assessments that were not originally outlined.
In a letter dated 3 September, the labour ministry requested the Karnataka State Labour Commissioner’s Office to investigate the matter and take appropriate steps in line with relevant labour laws.
In response to the union’s complaint, Infosys reportedly issued final offer letters to more than 2,000 candidates from the 2022 batch. However, around 700 graduates are still waiting for confirmation of their joining dates. The delays were attributed to a hiring freeze, prompted by economic challenges such as fears of recession and reduced discretionary spending in key IT markets, which have impacted recruitment in the sector.
