The recent Infosys move to plug the leakage of highly skilled resources by pushing through the new non-compete clause, that forbids new joiners from working on the same customer’s projects across five named competitors and their subsidiaries for six months, is most likely to fall flat.
According to top industry experts, the move that advocates conditions after leaving the company is not only restrictive, but the traceability of a breach of such a clause has practical challenges in India.
Infosys’s recently introduced non-compete clause forbids new joiners from working on the same customer’s projects across five named competitors and their subsidiaries for six months after leaving the firm.
It has named TCS, IBM, Accenture, Wipro, and Cognizant as competitors that employees cannot join if they are put on a project of the same customer as the one they were working for at Infosys. Infosys’ objective seems to be to restrain employees from divulging confidential information related to customers.
Some feel the enforcement of such a clause at a time when attrition is at an all-time high in the IT industry would dent employee morale. Pune-based IT/ITeS union Nites has filed a complaint with the ministry of labour & employment on the development.
Meanwhile, Infosys terms its move as a standard business practice in many parts of the world. “It brings reasonable scope and duration to protect the confidentiality of information, customer connection, and other legitimate business interests,” Infosys said.
According to the company, the HR policy clearly discloses to all job aspirants before they decide to join Infosys, and is not aimed at preventing employees from joining other organisations for career growth and aspirations.
