At a press conference hosted by IT labor union NITES, Infosys employees who were recently laid off accused the company of intentionally increasing the difficulty of fresher assessments to limit the number of candidates who could advance. They alleged that the evaluation process was unfairly altered, with higher passing criteria and unexpected changes in marking schemes, leading to mass terminations. However, Infosys has denied the allegations, stating its training and evaluation processes are transparent and well-communicated.
According to sources, the Karnataka Labour Ministry stated Infosys had not violated any laws in its employee layoffs. The company detailed its hiring and layoff processes to government officials during their visit to Infosys’ Mysuru campus, after which the officials confirmed no labour laws had been breached.
The Timeline
According to a former employee, Infosys conducted their interviews in March 2022 and sent the selection emails a month later, followed by the offer letters. However, the company allegedly offered no further communication till NITES intervened in June 2024, when they received an email about an online pre-training schedule for July 2024. They said that despite completing the pre-training, the promised results were never communicated, and instead, were directed to take the pre-training exam offline again.
After NITES submitted an official complaint to the Ministry of Labour and Employment, the Government of India took measures against Infosys for delaying onboarding for over 2,000 campus hires on August 20, 2024.
Further, in September last year, the Karnataka State Labour Ministry called Infosys officials for a meeting, followed by the company asking employees to report to the Mysore campus in October.
“Within the first month, Infosys trainers labeled our batch as the termination batch. Some co-educators told us privately our batch was a testing batch and was meant to be terminated. Trainees were instructed not to put much effort into training. Infosys clearly decided to onboard us due to the pressure from the NITES and the government rather than their actual business requirements. The exam pattern was deliberately changed for our batch, making it difficult to pass. Even topics in Java and DBMS were introduced this time, even though previous batches had simpler questions,” said an employee, who wishes to remain unnamed.
The employees further claimed Infosys increased the passing criteria from 50 per cent to 65 per cent. However, despite scoring the required marks in assessment management, the employees were supposedly forced to sign a mutual agreement to part ways.
Another employee said the company initially promised three attempts but changed things midway through the training. “The difficulty level was increased dramatically and the once promised grace marks were removed in the second attempt.”
They also claimed the first attempt included both grace marks and negative markings, while the second attempt removed grace marks but retained negative markings. The final attempt, which was expected to be easier with no negative marking to help candidates pass, was more difficult and still included negative marking.
“Failure rates were increased and only a fraction of candidates passed each attempt. The company said they can only provide an experience letter to permanent employees and trainees. This decision created difficulty in securing future employment. After the first attempt, only 160 out of the 950 candidates were passed, and in the second, only 140 passed. When the third attempt came, we were told of unexpected negative markings, further raising the failure rates,” they shared, adding that by the end, most had been eliminated.
“It felt like a systematic effort to weed out candidates. They had no real intentions of hiring us in the first place.”
Infosys Responds
The company, however, denied these claims. In a statement, it said, “Infosys takes great pride in the quality of its employees and provides one of the finest training programs globally recognized as a leading foundation program in the industry. Every trainee joins with the clear understanding that performance evaluations are an integral part of their development and progress.”
It continued, “Each trainee that joins Infosys, fills out an Apprenticeship Registration Form accepting their apprenticeship with Infosys, where the training cost is borne entirely by Infosys. Our testing processes are articulated in the evaluation policy document and communicated proactively to all trainees. Also, as part of the evaluation process, negative marking is across all three attempts where Multiple-Choice Questions formats are followed. This is part of the evaluation policy document and also communicated proactively at the time of induction of our trainees. Furthermore, all eligible trainees (over 98%) have received their relieving letter upon separation, along with outplacement services, severance pay, and counseling among other measures, as shared earlier.”
Government Intervention
Harpreet Singh Saluja, the President of NITES alleged that when it had escalated the onboarding delay to the Central Government in 2024, the Karnataka state labor ministry had tried to safeguard Infosys by dismissing the complaints due to the anonymity maintained by the employees.
This time, he said, every said employee submitted their grievances to both state and central government. On Tuesday, the central labor ministry said they asked the state government to intervene and take action. The central government directed the state labor ministry to also inform NITES, the disgruntled employees about the progress.
Earlier this week, Karnataka labour minister Santosh Lad met with the management of Infosys. “They tried to deviate from the topic. While the minister was asking about the recent layoffs, the company was explaining the PIP procedure, only applicable to permanent or tenured employees,” Saluja said.
He added, “We are experiencing a mass layoff of this nature for the first time. There have been silent layoffs that were scattered, with particular employees targeted. Usually, a company with multiple offices across India doesn’t target just one location. If they want to lay off 100 employees, they will terminate 10 from every location to avoid chaos. This situation is new to us because around 650-700 employees were let go at a time. We do not expect an IT giant like Infosys to strand its employees on the road on the outskirts of Mysore.”
Unclear contracts and unpaid dues
Alongside, he alleged Infosys had paid the trainees ₹16,000-17000 while the offer letter mentioned a ₹25,000 stipend, the employees claimed.
“They are saying we are not employees after creating our employee ID and deducting our PF,” an ex-employee said.
Saluja continued, “NITES will take every legal step and ensure authorities investigate properly. If appropriate measures are not taken by the government, we won’t hesitate to host a massive protest outside the Infosys campus.”
