Firm on IIM grads joining by Dec, Flipkart offers Rs 1.5 lakh compensation

Efforts by the institute to convince the company to allow students to join their jobs on the date promised earlier failed as the Flipkart on Thursday said during a conference call that it can’t adhere to IIM-A demand.

IIM-Ahmedabad and Flipkart were locked in a face-off on Thursday with the e-commerce major refusing to honour its job commitment to students of the prestigious institute until December, as against June promised earlier, but offered a compensation for the intervening period.

Flipkart is India’s largest online marketplace, while IIMs are the top hiring grounds for companies in the country.(Reuters file photo)

While the Bengaluru-based company cited restructuring of its businesses as the reason behind deferring the joining dates for campus recruits, IIM-A said its students have already been getting job offers from other companies and they are looking at these opportunities.

IIM-A placement committee chairperson Asha Kaul said the company is firm on its earlier stand that students can only join in December rather than June and for that new hires will be paid a compensation of Rs 1.5 lakh each.

Efforts by the institute to convince the company to allow students to join their jobs on the date promised earlier failed as the Flipkart on Thursday said during a conference call that it can’t adhere to IIM-A demand. The company maintained that it is going through an organisational restructuring and looking to creating right kind of job for the students.

“They categorically said they don’t want to budge on that. Its now for the students to decide what they want to do, but we have already been getting offers from other companies that say that they will like to create jobs for these students,” Kaul said, adding students are now open to “looking for engagement with other companies”.

During the campus placement season that concluded in February this year, Flipklart had hired 18 students from IIM-A and it had asked them to join in June as per the offer letter.

On Friday last week, Flipkart wrote to students saying they can only join from December and not June as promised earlier, and for that each will get compensation.

“A process has already begun for other job offers. Now, the students will have to see if the jobs they are offered match their requirements,” she said.

The institute, after students complaints, had shot off a letter on Monday this week saying the compensation is unacceptable as students, who had turned away several offers while accepting Flipkart’s offer, also have to pay their education loans.

Kaul said in her letter that the campus should have been forewarned and engaged as partners before taking this decision.

“They were expected to join in the month of June and suddenly in the month of May the company makes this statement. During summer, they are mentally prepared and you get the job, and it can be a bad experience,” Kaul said. PTI KA PD NRB MKJ