According to media reports, Pune based IT union NITES may file a complaint against India’s second-largest IT major Infosys with Maharashtra state’s labour ministry.
This decision has come as discussions with the Central Labour Ministry and Infosys could not conclude. Infosys has written a letter to the labour ministry to explain its position.
In the letter addressed to Krish Shankar, Infosys’ Group Head-Human Resources, and Harpreet Singh Saluja, President, Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES), the Office of the Chief Labour Commissioner noted, “This is with reference to the complaint from President, NITES against the management of Infosys Ltd in respect of non-compete agreement clause whereby the employees terminated from employment from Infosys for any reason have been restricted in respect of their future employment. The aforesaid clause has been alleged to be unethical and illegal by the complainant”.
The company failed to appear in the third listening before Labour Commissioner Central after notice from Labour Ministry on the non-complete clause on May 17 and April 28. Also, didn’t reply to detailed queries until the time of going to press.
What is the non-compete clause?
As per the agreement, Infosys has a non-compete clause in the offer letters which restricts the employees who resign from the company can’t work with the ‘named competitors such as Tata Consultancy Services, IBM, Cognizant, Wipro, and Accenture’ for 6 months if the new job involves working with a customer with whom the employee has worked in the preceding 12 months during his/her stint at Infosys.
Infosys had said, “These are fully disclosed to all job aspirants before they decide to join Infosys, and do not have the effect of preventing employees from joining other organizations for career growth and aspirations.”
“It is a “standard business practice” for employment contracts to include “controls of reasonable scope and duration to protect the confidentiality of information, customer connection, and other legitimate business interests,” It had said in clarification.
“A follow-up hearing for joint discussions was held on May 26, Thursday in New Delhi and it seems like the issue cannot be resolved amicably as Infosys’ team did not turn up again. Also, it appears as if the central government may not have the powers to take appropriate action in this case despite labour being a concurrent subject. We had approached the centre only because has multiple branches across the country,” mentioned Harpreet Saluja, president, of Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate.
