Infosys declares to gift free shares to its employees on its 30th anniversary-Each will get 5 plus each for number of working years.

Infosys declares to gift free shares to its employees on its 30th anniversary-Each will get 5 plus each for number of working years.

BANGALORE: There will be a birthday bonanza for all Infosians, on their employer entering the 30th year of operation on July 2. Each employee of Infosys Technologies will get five shares of the company plus number of shares equivalent to the number of years they stayed with the company. For instance, an employee working with the company for the last 10 years will get a total of 15 shares.

At the share price of Rs 2,790 as of Wednesday, every employee will get the equivalent of at least Rs 14,000. Those getting, say, 15 shares will get the equivalent of almost Rs 42,000. The shares will come from the Infosys Employee Welfare Trust and not from Infosys Technologies.

All employees of Infosys and its subsidiaries who are on the rolls of the company as of March 31, 2010, and who are not under the notice period and continue to be in the rolls of the company on the distribution date (around second week of August 2010) would be eligible for this distribution, said a company communique. But founders and board members of the company will not be eligible for this award.

Infosys declined to say more on the issue. The company has a little over 1 lakh employees, and some estimate that the total outgo from the Welfare Trust would be between Rs 200 crore and Rs 250 crore. When Infosys turned 25 years four years ago, the company gave out a cash reward to all its employees. "This year, we will get free shares, instead of cash," said an employee who has worked with the company for eight years and expects to get 13 shares.

"On this occasion, in recognition of the contribution of each Infosian towards the company's success, the trustees of the Infy Employee Welfare Trust have informed the company, that they have decided to distribute the corpus of the trust held in the form of equity shares to the beneficiaries (employees of Infosys Technologies and its subsidiaries)," said the company.

This move appears to be part of a series of measures that the company has taken in recent months to regain the confidence of its employees who were adversely affected by an HR initiative called iRACE (Infosys Role and Career Enhancement) introduced last year.

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