Bangalore: Engineering grads hired by HCL Technologies protested before the company’s offices across Bangalore, Noida, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Pune due to lack of clarity about their joining dates.

This was the second such protest in a week demanding solid actions to convert the offers made by the company into actual offers. These grads were hired by the firm in September 2012 and were offered Letters of Intent (LoI) to formally join the company in few months. But more than a year later, they are still waiting to be officially inducted into the company, reports Shilpa Phadnis of TNN.

A statement from the firm stated, “HCL tech remains committed to hire every individual with letters of intent and added that the firm will start communicating the dates of joining in August 2013 or even earlier, for positions across the various lines of business”.

This is not an isolated incident, as another IT giant, Infosys last year deferred the joining of fresh grads of 2012 batch by three months. It seems most IT firms are unwilling to admit publicly that the uncertainties over IT demand in the wake of financial meltdown are compelling them to defer the joining dates of fresher’s over a much longer period than normal.