HONOR THE OFFER MADE AT THE TIME OF ONBOARDING
Amid delays in onboarding new joiners, IT Company Wipro has made an offer to them, telling that they would be allowed to join the company in March 2023 if they take a drastic 46% cut in the initial offering of 6.5 lakhs per annum (LPA), and instead take Rs 3.5 LPA. Wipro offers two hiring programmes for graduate freshers: Elite and Turbo.
Elite candidates are offered Rs 3.5 LPA, while Turbo candidates are offered Rs 6.5 LPA after they undergo a training program called Velocity. The Turbo candidates received the offer to be onboarded in March if they agreed to the lower salary.
“Like others in our industry, we continue to assess global economies and customer needs, which factor into our hiring plans. We appreciate your commitment and patience as we try to identify joining opportunities for you. Currently, we have certain Project Engineer roles available for recruitment with an annual compensation of INR 3.5 lakhs. We would like to offer all our Velocity graduates in the FY23 batch an opportunity to opt for these roles,” the email read.
This has put candidates, many of whom have been waiting to join the company for more than a year, in a precarious position. The company has also made this heavily slashed offer time-bound to add pressure and coerce the freshers into making void, the contracts signed earlier. Many of the freshers who were promised 6.5 LPA by Wipro gave up other offers they were considering.
In January 2023, Wipro announced its Q3 revenue at Rs 23,229 crore, up 14.35 per cent over Rs 20,313.60 crore in the same quarter last year. Even though inflation has jumped 45-50% since 2007-08, entry-level salaries for freshers in the IT industry remain at 3-3.5 LPA for the last 2 decades. This is blatant wage theft by tech companies that are leveraging the unemployment crisis to impoverish young tech workers.
Moreover, in October 2022, Wipro fired 300 employees over moonlighting after complaining about it publicly. This is an indication that Wipro employees have had to take up multiple jobs to maintain their standard of living due to low pay at the company. Yet, Wipro merely ended the contract instead of even considering the fact that their salaries needed to be revised. Now again they are lowering the pay offerings from the original contracts which directly sets the ground for moonlighting.
All India IT & ITeS employees’ Union stands with Wipro freshers, who have had their careers ruined even before they could start working. We demand that the company honour the original offer of 6.5 lakhs per annum (LPA) for its Turbo freshers. The company also needs to re-look at the salary offered to its Elite freshers and provide them with a dignified living wage.
We urge the onboarded Wipro employees to unite and fight for their rights. Together, we are stronger.
Saubhik Bhattacharya,
General Secretary AIITEU (9830090202)