Wipro Tech seeks to end job row

Wipro Technologies, the country's third largest software services exporter, today met the West Bengal information technology (IT) minister Debesh Das and a section of students in Kolkata, to clear the row over delay or termination of campus recruitments.

According to Pradeep Bahirwani, VP-talent acquisition, Wipro Technologies, “We made offers to 13,500 students in 2007-08 for joining our centres in 2008-09. Around 98 per cent of the students have accepted our offers. Only a section of students were confused about the changes stated in letters we sent to them last week. Today we met them to clarify that they may join us as technical support engineers at our BPO division, instead of joining as project engineers. The salaries stated in the offer letter remain unchanged irrespective of which department they join.”

“When we recruited last year, the situation was different as the global recession had not set in. But now we are going to reevaluate our hiring plans according to demand,” Bahirwani said.

The students have time till December 5 to inform Wipro about their decision. In case the students do not wish to join the BPO division as technical support engineers, they have the option to wait till the company has vacancies for project engineers, which is the profile offered to students earlier.

“We made the BPO offer so that there is no delay in employment for the students just because our vacancies have dried up. After all, we had said we would employ them in 2008-09 and we just wanted to live up to the commitment,” Bahirwani said. Wipro's BPO division has a headcount of about 16,500, of which close to 5,000 are located in Kolkata. Currently, about 20-30 per cent of Wipro's BPO revenue comes from non-voice and transaction-processing business, which requires professionally-qualified persons, including engineers, MBAs and other financial professionals.