Bengaluru
The Karnataka labour department has issued notice to Infosys and the IT employees union NITES (Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate) to hold a joint meeting on July 4 over the non-compete clause added by the IT company in its employment agreements.
It all started in April when NITES appealed to the labour ministry against Infosys seeking removal of the non-compete clause from offer letters. As per the contract, it bans employees from working for the same customer in rival firms TCS, IBM, Cognizant, Accenture and Wipro for six months after the termination of their employment.
Soon after the appeal, the Ministry of Labour and Employment had issued a notice to Infosys for joint discussion regarding non-compete agreement. Earlier, Infosys had replied saying the clause under discussion is fairly common and standard business practice in contracts, in the IT services sector in India.
Last month, the chief labour commissioner had sent letters to labour commissioners of Haryana, Maharashtra and Karnataka and said for further action, the matter needs to be forwarded to state governments. Following this, Karnataka labour department on June 21 called both Infosys and the IT union to appear in person for a joint meeting on July 4.
