New Delhi: IT services giant Infosys claimed on Wednesday that it did not use force or intimidation tactics when it laid off trainees at Mysuru campus over performance-related issues. It added that it was explaining the circumstances to the labour department authorities, PTI reported.
Chief Human Resources Officer at the company, Shaji Mathew, however, admitted to PTI that the assessment failure percentage in the company was “slightly higher” than in the past. But rubbished allegations that the tests were designed to fail those appeared.
He further said that the company is going to hire 20,000 freshers in FY26, and he promised that they have nothing to worry about as they will get one of the best corporate training.
On allegations that testing parameters, assessment criteria and syllabus were altered and intimidation tactics were employed to recently lay off around 300 employees at the Mysuru campus, Mathew said that given that the company invests money and effort to select and put trainees through the training programme, it is in its interest to see those recruits are successful. It is only after that the company could put them into their projects, he said.
Mathew said that the Karnataka State Labour Department is in touch with the company and cooperating with authorities, The Hindu reported.
When Mathew was asked if the company is considering reinstating trainees, he said that there has been no further question about taking them back.
He stood firm in the company’s claims, saying that ‘bouncers’ were never brought and intimidation tactics were not used.
He said that as the correlation between headcount and revenue weakens, the era of large-scale hiring and maintaining extensive talent benches is becoming obsolete. The new paradigm will be defined by just-in-time hiring, selective recruitment of high-end talent and aggressive up-skilling of the workforce.