BENGALURU: Following IT company Wipro’s move to let go of 452 freshers stating they performed poorly in assessments, employee union Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES) has written to the labour ministry seeking necessary actions regarding layoff.
Last week, Wipro had fired 452 freshers and the company said they performed poorly in assessments repeatedly even after providing training. “This systematic and comprehensive performance evaluation process triggers a series of actions such as mentoring and retraining and in some cases separation of certain employees,” the company had said. Earlier on September 24, 2022, NITES submitted a complaint with the labour department regarding Wipro’s delay in onboarding selected candidates.
Harpeet Singh Saluja, president, NITES said they received information from a group of students who were given offer letters by Wipro between September 2021 and January 2022 about delay in onboarding. “Around February 2022, they received selection emails and offer letters with packages of Rs 3.5 lakh per year. The company told employees that either they have to pay for training or else they need to undergo an unpaid internship and a training programme... the unpaid internship started around March-April 2022 and ended around July 2022. ....now there are students who have received illegal termination letters by the company.”
“These students and employees have rejected offers from other companies keeping their faith in Wipro that someday the company will hire them. Not a single rupee has been given to these employees by Wipro,” Saluja added.
ALSO WATCH |
In its termination letter to freshers, Wipro said, “Post your Project Readiness Program (PRP) completion, we conducted an offline technical assessment, in which your score was below 20%. This does not meet the passing criteria... Your last working day will be considered as 20 January 2023.”
Also, the company informed those employees it terminated saying that the training cost of Rs 75,000 which they were liable to pay will be waived off.
‘Freshers scored below 20% in assessment test’
In its termination letter to freshers, Wipro said, “Post your Project Readiness Program (PRP) completion, we conducted an offline technical assessment, in which your score was below 20%. This doesn’t meet passing criteria... Your last working day will be considered as Jan 20, 2023