Wipro BPO recruitments; Techies protest

Hundreds of students in West Bengal, protesting IT company Wipro's decision to recruit engineers as business process outsourcing (BPO) employees, met state IT Minister Debesh Das to air their problems.

The students, who were earlier selected for engineering jobs by the IT major, say the company is now recruiting them as BPO employees.

“We met the IT minister and he told us that he will look into the matter,” Sayantan Mukherjee, a student of Bengal Institute of Technology said.

"We were promised jobs in the company after we complete our engineering courses in 2009. But last week we were asked to join as BPO employees," he said.

Mukherjee got Wipro's offer in March 2007 for the post of project engineer, but was later asked by the company to join its BPO division.

"Moreover, the company is asking for a bond money of Rs 75,000 for the BPO job, which is unheard of in the industry. Usually project engineers are asked to deposit money, not BPO employees," he added.

However, when contacted, a Wipro official told the media that the decision was taken to give opportunity to graduates to start their work without any delay.

"Every year campus joining is spread out over the four quarters. This is done for logistical reasons of training and seating. Due to current business scenario we estimate delays in joining dates of some batches of recruits," Pradeep Bahirwani, VP (talent acquisition), Wipro, told from Bangalore through an email.

"We are providing them an option of a technical support role in our BPO division. The objective is to let engineering graduates commence work without delay," he said.

Bahirwani added that the employees would have an opportunity to move into the technologies business in 12-18 months based on business demand. "The annual compensation will remain unchanged as per the original offer letter and those not wishing to exercise this option would have to await their joining dates for the technologies division."

Mukherjee said similar things were happening in other states like Orissa and Andhra Pradesh. The students over there were also protesting against the decision, he said.

Source: Agencies