BENGALURU, Aug 25 Reuters India39;s top IT services firms are freezing or cutting staff bonuses, worried that tightening budgets at U.S. and European clients who are bracing for a recession will sharply hit their own profits after a pandemicled boom.

Infosys Ltd, India39;s secondbiggest IT company, and smaller rival Wipro recently told their employees they had reduced the variable pay portion of employee compensations, according to respective internal emails sent by management to staff at the two companies and seen by Reuters.

Some Indian companies include variable pay as a part of employees39; overall salary package and link it to the performance of the employee as well as the company.

There39;s growing conviction in businesses that we need to prepare for a global recession, said Peter BendorSamuel, chief executive of U.S.based consultancy Everest Group, which provides research on IT companies globally.

The first thing they do is try to eliminate discretionary spending. It is early, but starting to happen.

Big Indian IT companies paid top dollar to lure skilled workers over the past two years as demand surged for services such as cloudcomputing, digital payment infrastructure, cybersecurity and cryptocurrency transactions. That set off a tussle for talent with company reports showing that net numbers of people leaving big IT companies this year are 6080 higher than two years ago.

Bigger pay packets have been among factors putting pressure on margins.

Infosys39;…