Monday 06 November 2023 4:10 pm | Updated: Monday 11 December 2023 10:38 am

Corporate Slavery & India

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“Indians work longer hours per year (~2000) than USA, Brazil and Germany” said a report published by the ILO¹; but Narayan Murthy does not believe it.

Last week, in a podcast, founder and Ex-CEO of Infosys, Narayan Murthy (hailed as the father of the 24-hour workday on Infosys website) suggested that Indian youth should work at least 70 hrs a week (~3600+ hours a year) to help support India’s growth. He had on a previous occasion suggested a 60-hour work week.

Let’s talk about what is wrong with Mr Murthy’s comments and why it was followed by a huge uproar on social media. Ensuing discussions primarily followed three themes: health, wages and gender.

A diagram of the ecosystem

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Source: The Productivity Ecosystem as described by ILO in a policy paper ²

Health

Firstly, the remark is irksome as it implies that while obsessively chasing the pursuit of financial growth, it doesn’t matter if one must forgo mental, emotional and social growth.

According to a survey ³ conducted in 2022, 50% of respondents (in the 24 to 34 age group) stated that their stress and anxiety levels have hiked in the year. Murthy’s remarks were met with criticism from a cardiologist ⁴ based in the ‘Silicon Valley of India-Bengaluru.’

Let’s see what Infosys does for the well-being of its employees. The company boasts about its employee wellbeing rate being at an all-time high of 91%. (ESG report 2023, Pg 46), but no information on what this rate is or how it is calculated is given.

If the company’s employee satisfaction percentage of 82% (as reported in the ESG report 2023) is to be believed, Infosys should not be facing any productivity issues as per the popular study which states that “happy and satisfied employees are 13% more productive.” ⁵

Wages

Next, Infosys and its peers are notoriously famous for handing out low wages to its young and new employees (referred to as ‘freshers’). In fact, freshers in the IT sector in India are still paid about the same salary they were paid a decade ago.

According to Business Today’s research, in the Indian IT sector, while CEO’s median salaries saw a growth of 1500%, freshers’ median salaries grew by a meagre 40% in the past 10 years. ⁶

It was reported last month that the company stepped into a new appraisal cycle even as wage hikes

from the previous appraisal cycle were still pending. This implies that their hard-working employees are not even being incentivised to be more productive.

Next, while Infosys mentions that ‘most of its employees are full-time, permanent ones’, they do not report their ‘part-time’ or ‘contractual’ employees as ‘zero.’ On one hand where the company prides itself upon its extensive programs and policies regarding employee wellbeing and development, leaving out the ‘minorities’ headcount let alone the employment policies concerning ‘contractual workers’ is bound to raise some eyebrows.

“Decent Work” which is a core component of ‘productivity’ depends on how a company treats ‘all employees.’

Gender

Lastly, let’s discuss how a 70-hour work week will be hell for Indian working women who already dedicate more than 16 hours between the office and home.

Women will be the worst hit in such demographics, how does Mr Murthy plan to achieve his ambition of at least 45% women in Infosys workforce? (currently ~39.4%)

A company’s work ethic and culture are a direct representation of its leaders’ and founders’ beliefs. No matter how many sustainability policies and programs are put in place, the true ethos trickles down in its day-to-day functioning.

What needs to change?

Hence, it comes as no surprise that despite an excellent suite of policies, the company’s employees took to social media to criticise Infosys.

It goes on to prove that good leadership reflects in a company’s policies as well as happy and productive employees, who are at the receiving end of these policies. Companies should devise policies and programs to enhance their employee well-being and not for the sole purpose of garnering better ESG ratings.

Written by Integrum ESG Analyst Neha Kandwal.