IT Major, Infosys executives did not appear before the Chief Labour Commissioner (Central) in New Delhi on Thursday, April 28, for a joint discussion with a Pune-based IT labour union, regarding a controversial non-compete clause in its offer letters.
The labour ministry had called Infosys Group Head-HR, Krish Shankar and Harpreet Singh Saluja, President- NITES to have a joint discussion before the Chief Labour Commissioner in New Delhi on April 28.
Now, the hearing on the non-compete clause issue has been postponed to May 16.
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.
NITES president Harpreet Saluja had said, “The restriction contained in the Employment letter which is mentioned above is clearly in restraint of trade and therefore illegal under section 27 of the Contract Act. It is not seeking to enforce the negative covenant during the term of employment of the employee but after the termination of service.”
