IIM Ahmedabad takes on Flipkart for delaying students' joining

After e-tailing major Flipkart delayed the joining dates of its new campus recruits and management trainees, IIM Ahmedabad has shown its utter displeasure and concern over the issue in a letter written to the CEO, Binny Bansal, and Chief People Officer, Nitin Seth.

The management trainees were to join the company in July but now it has been delayed till December 2016.

The letter by IIM-A placement committee Chairman says, "Most of the students had chosen Flipkart over other well-reputed recruiters on campus because of the strength of the brand Flipkart. Your decision to defer the date of joining, comes as it does so close to the earlier promised date of July 2016, is sure to make this talent pool regret their well thought-out decision.

"Talented students fresh out of campus, on the eve of starting successful careers, feel cheated out of multiple opportunities that the campus had to offer, through no fault of their own, just because they chose Flipkart.

“With campus perception of recruiters trickling down from one batch to the next, this can significantly hurt the brand Flipkart on campus during subsequent rounds of campus hiring in the years to come," says the letter.

In return for the deferred joining, Flipkart is offering the new recruits a joining bonus of Rs 1.5 lakh. To which IIM-A has responded in the letter, “The amount of Rs 1.5 lakh offered as joining bonus hardly qualifies as compensation for seven months of forced unemployment.”

The letter also said, all placement heads and placement committees of all colleges have decided to come forward in support of IIM Ahmedabad students and would like to have a common conference call with Flipkart so that “we can find a more amicable solution”.

The letter has asked Flipkart to consider extending an undertaking signed by the CEO guaranteeing that every one of these students will be absorbed when the date of joining is finalised no later than December.

Also, either the period of deferment needs to be scaled down or the quantum of compensation for deferment needs to be ramped up (Rs 1.5 lakh for a period of seven months is, to put it mildly, utterly unacceptable) to reflect x per cent of package.

To this Flipkart has responded on its official blog that Flipkart is going through a restructuring process currently, and as part of the process, their campus programme will also go through a comprehensive overhaul.

"As we work on redesigning this programme, we have taken a decision to postpone the joining of new recruits by a few months. Instead of June 2016, the new recruits will now be part of the improved campus programme in December 2016," says the Flipkart Blog.

“To allay the students' pain and disappointment, we will offer them an additional joining bonus of Rs 1.5 lakh to all recruits who join us in December,” adds the blog.

To the question raised by IIM-A about the delayed joining affecting students’ ability to pay back their educational loans, Flipkart responded, “Loan repayment starts a year after the end of studies or six months after the student gets a job, whichever is earlier (this is known as ‘moratorium period’ or ‘repayment holiday’). Candidates can seek an extension on this period by submitting their revised offer letters to the bank.”

The e-commerce giant has assured in the blog post that all the trainees will be on board in December 2016.

The Flipkart blog, on the other hand, has garnered strong reactions with readers posting comments that criticised the company's decision. “Flipkart knows well that IIM-A grads are unlikely to sit around for six months doing nothing and most will find an alternate offer to accept thus absolving Flipkart of doing the unpleasant business of not honouring its offer," commented Sanjit Misra on the Flipkart blog.