Freshly terminated trainees waiting for taxis and buses to return to their hometown. (image-X/myy_Rahul)
Mysore, Karnataka: Over 400 trainee employees were laid off from Infosys’ Mysuru training facility on February 7. Since then, two narratives of the story have come out. While the multinational tech giant claimed that employees ‘voluntarily’ signed their release agreements, the terminated employees recount a tale of intimidation, disrespect, and lack of regard for their well-being.
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Friday, February 7
Batches of nearly 50 trainees were called in for a discussion early in the morning at 9:30 am. They claim that while they were huddled inside a room, bouncers stood inside while security officials remained outside. Buses also stood outside, allegedly covering the area from some US clients and employees from Infosys’ digital banking platform Finacle. The affected individuals claim it was to prevent them from seeing what was going to happen.
A day earlier, they had received an email that reportedly read, “You are required to maintain confidentiality, hence please do not discuss this or share this calendar invite with anyone.”
A series of terminations was about to happen.
A Moneycontrol report recounted the tale of the bereaved trainee employees who had joined Infosys roughly two and a half years after graduating.
“Please let me stay the night. I will leave tomorrow. Where will I go right now?” One female trainee, hailing from Madhya Pradesh, reportedly pleaded after she was asked to vacate the Mysuru campus immediately after termination.
“You are no longer part of the company. Vacate the premises by 6 pm,” an Infosys official told them, claimed a trainee, as quoted by Moneycontrol.
Hundreds of trainees, freshly terminated and told to vacate immediately, scrambled around in search of taxis and buses to head back to their hometowns, wondering how to inform their families of the massive and sudden change in their lives.
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The Statement by Infosys
The multinational tech firm responded to the incident as criticism grew over its decision. “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,” said the company.
It further added, “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.”
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The Internal Assessments
The trainees, however, allege that they had received a warning before regarding the exam being designed in a manner that a significant number of them would struggle to pass.
The terminated trainees claim that over the past two to three years, the freshers’ training program has witnessed drastic changes to the evaluation system. Allegedly the assessments are way more challenging, the syllabus has been expanded, and the time to prepare for it has significantly reduced.
While in the previous structure (2022), trainees were required to clear two phases: generic and technology stream, with an overall passing criterion of 50 percent. But the current system, designed to meet the challenging demands in the IT industry, imposes stricter requirements, including a minimum of 65 percent in each area of evaluation.
For example, the programming fundamentals section, after the changes, takes around 120 hours, and the total study time required for all subject totals is nearly 200 hours. Trainees are also expected to study an additional eight hours daily outside of their formal training hours (9:15 am to 5:45 pm).
Naturally, the sudden changes have led to a sharp rise in the failure rates. Out of 930 trainees that joined Infosys on October 7, only 160 passed in their first attempt and 140 in their second. Nearly 630 students failed by January 1 this year.
According to Moneycontrol, termination rates have jumped from 10 percent to nearly 30-40 percent now at Infosys.
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On top of that, trainees complain of the same syllabus being taught for different roles with significant salary differences. The same syllabus is being studied by both system engineers who earn a monthly 20,000 as well as specialist programmers who earn nearly Rs 70,000.
This didn’t use to be the case before, as hiring exams were designed according to job roles.
Since the news broke out, several people slammed the tech company for exploiting its employees and showing barely any regard for their dignity and well-being. Others raised concerns on the “questionable” recruitment process. “If 700 freshers are not able to clear assessment test just after recruitment, it simply means that company’s recruitment process is questionable. This company cannot be continued to do so in its whims and fancies. Urgent Government intervention is required,” remarked a netizen.
Notably, around 450 trainees from the October 2021 batch will sit for their third and final attempt for mostly system engineer roles on February 14. Roughly 4,500 trainees are still undergoing training. How many will clear the exam and how many are terminated remains to be seen.
