Following Flipkart’s decision to defer by seven months the joining dates of its most recent batch of campus recruits, Indian Institute of Management – Ahmedabad and the IITs are likely to strip the e-commerce giant of its Day One slot in their campus placement programs, reported Times of India.
The All-IITs Placement Committee (AIPC), comprising placement cell heads across all IITs, will be meeting in the next few days to take a stand on the Flipkart issue. The reason they’re re-considering taking action against the Indian e-commerce giant is because there are already so many alumni working there.
But what is the Day One slot?
The prestigious ‘Day One’ slots are generally reserved for leading corporate houses across IITs, including tech giants like Google and Microsoft. All companies compete for this day so that they have the opportunity to hire the most talented first.
So far, Flipkart has enjoyed the Day One slot during campus placements excluding in some campuses like the IIT-Bombay. But after this fallout they may have to earn the right to be in the Day One placements again.
So what led to this?
In an email to IIM-Ahmedabad sent on Wednesday, Flipkart wrote that it is in the middle of a organisational restructuring exercise which must be completed before the student recruits can be accommodated, reported NDTV.
In the email, e-tailer Flipkart said: “This was a difficult decision for us to arrive at and we feel the disappointment of students. At the same time, it is important for us to land our campus hires into Flipkart at the right time and into meaningful roles which gives them opportunity to learn and grow”.
And as compensation for waiting to get on-board, the e-commerce giant has offered to pay each student a one-time payment of Rs 1.5 lakh.
But that hasn’t impressed the IIM-A chairperson who wrote back to the e-tailer’s CEO Binny Bansal making his displeasure evident.
In the mail, the institute asked that the company honour its commitment and start paying the students it has recruited from June, partly because they have loans to pay. It also stated in the email that the offer of just Rs 1.5 lakhs as compensation is “utterly unacceptable” and the institute demanded the company guarantee jobs for all the selected students.
In response to this letter, Flipkart made a clarification post on its website titled, “Why has Flipkart delayed the joining dates of new campus hires” in which it said it would complete the process of taking the students on board by December this year.
But even IIT-Bombay may be planning to name and shame the company
IIT-Bombay is also contemplating sending an email to the company, asking them to either reduce the deferment period or increase the compensation amount, reported Economic Times.
The company has hired seven students from IIT-B.
Flipkart Isn’t the only one deferring joining dates
According to a report in The Hindu, InMobi, a leader in mobile advertising, has also deferred the joining dates of students hired from campuses from July to November 2016. Though InMobi too refused to reduce the deferment period, it has guaranteed the students’ jobs.
In November 2015, restuarant guide Zomato was blacklisted from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) placements.
The decision was taken recently by the All-IITs Placement Committee (AIPC), with at least six IITs – Delhi, Bombay, Kharagpur, Madras, Guwahati and Kanpur – confirming the blacklisting.
The blacklisting was a result of a spat between Zomato and IIT-Delhi over slotting issues in July. The online restaurant guide was denied a Day One slot as a recruiter as its salary package, Rs 26 lakh, was too low.
Following the denial of a top slot, CEO Deepinder Goyal took to Twitter to vent about the placement scenario in the IITs, His Twitter outburst played a major role in inviting a ban for his company from IIT placements.