HCLTech Employees Demand Salary Hikes From CEO C Vijayakumar

A section of HCLTech employees raised slogans demanding salary hikes while chief executive C Vijayakumar was addressing staff during the company's 50th anniversary celebrations in Chennai, with videos of the incident circulating widely on social media.

The chants of "we want hike" erupted as Vijayakumar walked onto the stage to address employees gathered at the event, briefly interrupting the proceedings. 

The clips quickly gained traction on social media, triggering discussions around compensation, employee expectations, and workplace sentiment in India's information technology sector.

The celebration was part of HCL Group's year-long golden jubilee events being held across multiple cities for employees.

HCLTech is yet to announce a timeline for salary hikes in the current fiscal year.

The incident comes at a time when India's $300 billion IT services industry continues to grapple with subdued client spending, slower discretionary technology investments and cautious hiring, prompting companies to keep a close watch on costs even as they step up investments in artificial intelligence.

HCLTech had not publicly commented on the incident at the time of publishing this article.

Vijayakumar, who has served as the CEO of HCLTech since 2016, is the highest-paid IT chief in the country. His remuneration jumped nearly 67% to ₹176.47 crore ($18.45 million) in FY26, according to HCLTech’s annual report.

HCLTech reported a 20.3% year-on-year increase in consolidated net profit to ₹4,626 crore ($84 million), while revenue rose 13.9% year-on-year to ₹34,579 crore ($3.62 billion) during the quarter ended June 30. In constant currency, revenue grew 2.6% from a year earlier but declined 0.5% sequentially, reflecting the seasonally weak first quarter.