TMCnet News
IBM asks recruiters for refund(Ecomonic Times, The (India) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Mar. 28--BANGALORE, India -- IBM has served notices to a dozen of its hiring agents in the country demanding refund of the professional fees and service taxes for the years 2003, 2004 and 2005. This follows the company's move to sack scores of employees who were sourced through these firms and who were found guilty of fudging their CVs. IBM sources talent through over 100 different hiring agencies. Sources say the hirers who have been served notices recruited over 10,000 people in the last three years of which 700 were found to have falsified their CVs and were thrown out after six to seven months on the job. One of the hirers read out to TOI the following from the IBM letter: "... after six to seven months of employment, we have terminated many people after finding discrepancies and unethical elements in their candidature . Therefore, please refund the service charges and tax components." When asked for comments , it sent this response , "IBM holds the highest level of corporate governance and ethical practices . We have a clear set of guidelines that define our business. We expect our employees, partners and suppliers to conduct IBM-related business with the highest standards of integrity." Sources say the errant hirers had a joint meeting wherein they decided to refund the service charges minus the tax component to the MNC. "We do not want to fall out with IBM, which is too big a brand for us to lose. We are willing to refund the service charges to the company. According to contractual clauses, our liability ends once an employee is three months into the job. But in this case, the company employed them for six to seven months before they were sacked. That means, even the company itself took a long time to gauge their candidature. At the same time, they expect us to be foolproof, even when we are asked to hire large numbers of people in a few days," said one of the hirers. IBM, sources say, might get a refund of over Rs 1 crore. But it's not just IBM. Almost all tier I and II companies are facing similar problems. In fact, almost all large companies are showing many employees the door on this ground, says a source. |