Date : 25-03-2015
Bengaluru: A group of employees working in India’s largest IT services company, Tata Consultancy Services, on Wednesday met the Deputy Labour Commissioner in Bengaluru seeking action against the mass sacking of employees. They told him that TCS has commenced a process of sacking employees on the basis of ‘non-performance’ a commonly used euphemesim for layoffs in the IT industry. The employees did not immediately file a formal complaint but said they will do so later.
Sources say that TCS started the lay-off process from December 8, without prior intimation across its various centres, including Bengaluru, Pune, Kolkata, Mumbai among others. the layoffs even follow a pattern – people having more than seven years of experience, who are in the middle-to-senior-level positions, are being asked to leave.
“In the restructuring process, employees are asked to sign voluntary resignation letters. We are given a one-month notice period, and are not being given eligible compensation,” said an employee working in the Electronics City campus who has been asked to leave.
Another employee working as an assistant consultant said, “I have been working with TCS for the last 14 years. In my last appraisal, I was in the ‘C’ band, which means my performance was good. First they remove you from the project, and later will ask you to leave the company.”
It is reported that TCS is undergoing a restructuring exercise as part of workforce optimisation, and this is expected to be over in February 2015.
When contacted, a company spokesperson in an email response said: “As a performance driven company, workforce optimisation is a continuous process which happens throughout the year taking into account employee performance, business needs, and people aspirations. This leads to some amount of involuntary attrition in the company. This is nothing out of the ordinary, or a special situation for us to comment about.”
“We continue to be leading recruiters of IT talent across the world, not only in India. In this fiscal, we have a total hiring target of 55,000 professionals, and we are on track to meet it,” the company added.
Sripada, Deputy Labour Commissioner, said: “Employees have not filed any formal complaint about the issue. I cannot comment on it until we receive a formal petition. Once we receive it, we will take appropriate action.”
