Infosys served 2nd notice by labour ministry over non-compete clause in employee contract

The union ministry of labour and employment has served a second notice to IT services firm, Infosys and the company executives have been called to attend a discussion with the ministry executives on May 17.

According to an emailed communication from Deputy Chief Labour Commissioner, Remis Tiru addressed to Krish Shankar, Group Head-Human Resources Infosys, the meeting is in reference to a public grievance made by Harpreet Singh Saluja, President Nascent IT Employees Senate (NITES) alleging arbitrary, unethical and illegal clause incorporated in the employment contracts of Infosys employees. The union ministry said in its communication that a copy of the grievance letter by NITES has been attached to the email.

The first notice had gone out from the labour ministry office to the Bengaluru headquartered firm to attend a discussion on April 28. However, Infosys had informed the labour ministry that it did not receive a copy of the grievance letter by NITES. The labour ministry has now sought written response from the Infosys in response to the grievance made by NITES which is to be submitted before May 16.

“In view of the above you are requested to make it convenient to attend the above mentioned joint discussion either personally or through an authorised representative well conversant with the issue on the above-scheduled date, time and venue,” as per the emailed communication from the ministry to Infosys Group Head HR- Krish Shankar.

Business Today has reached out to an Infosys spokesperson over their response to the fresh notice from the union labour ministry. The story will be updated as and when the company responds.

This publication earlier reported that the NITES had received complaints from 100 Infosys employees regarding an employment contract that bars the employees from working with rival companies within six months after their tenure at Infosys.

The employee contract, which was seen by BT, includes firms like TCS, Wipro, Accenture, Cognizant, and IBM as the "named competitors" where the employees have been barred to work with for at least a year, and also, especially with clients on whose projects the employees worked during their tenure at Infosys.

An Infosys spokesperson had in an earlier statement said that it is a standard business practice in many parts of the world for employment contracts to include controls of reasonable scope and duration to protect the confidentiality of information, customer connection and other legitimate business interests.

"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 organisations for career growth and aspirations," Infosys had said.