On July 27, TCS announced that the company would release 2% of its global workforce. This would account to more than 12,000 employees.
| Photo Credit: File photo
In the wake of a controversy erupting around a layoff announcement and alleged forced resignations at IT major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), sources claimed that the Labour Department had sent a notice to the company after the Karnataka State IT/ITeS Employees Union (KITU) filed a case of an industrial dispute.
The Hindu has also learnt that a conciliation meeting will be held on August 6 between KITU representatives and the TCS management in the presence of Labour Department officials.
On July 27, TCS announced that the company would release 2% of its global workforce. This would account to more than 12,000 employees. Allegations of forced resignations have also surfaced after the company introduced a new ‘Bench Policy’, which limits an employee’s duration on the bench to 34 hours annually. Workers note that not only does this transfer the onus of finding projects onto them, but also is too little time to find suitable projects.
Following these developments, union representatives met Labour Department officials on July 29, and filed a case against TCS regarding illegal mass retrenchment, demanding prosecution of the management for violating provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, and the conditions imposed by the government of Karnataka concerning the reporting of service particulars.
According to the Industrial Disputes Act, companies employing more than 100 workers are required to obtain prior approval from the government before carrying out any layoffs or retrenchments. Such retrenchments are permitted only for specific reasons and under conditions clearly defined in the Act.
The union claims to have received several complaints from TCS employees who were reportedly being forced by the management to resign. According to a mid-management level TCS employee The Hindu spoke to, several hundreds of employees from Bengaluru office of the company have been forced to resign in the last two weeks.
Multiple IT and ITeS unions have established help desks. KITU reported receiving more than 25 calls on its helpline from employees being forced to resign.
Response from TCS
On contacting TCS, The Hindu received the following response from the company:
“TCS is on a journey to become a Future-Ready organization.
“This includes strategic initiatives on multiple fronts, including investing in new-tech areas, entering new markets, deploying AI at scale for our clients and ourselves, deepening our partnerships, creating next-gen infrastructure and realigning our workforce model.
“Towards this, a number of reskilling and redeployment initiatives have been underway. As part of this journey, we will also be releasing associates from the organization whose deployment may not be feasible. This will impact about 2% of our global workforce, primarily in the middle and the senior grades, over the course of the year.
“This transition is being planned with due care to ensure there is no impact on service delivery to our clients.
“We understand that this is a challenging time for our colleagues likely to be affected. We thank them for their service, and we will be making all efforts to provide appropriate benefits, outplacement, counselling, and support as they transition to new opportunities.”
Published – July 31, 2025 11:44 am IST
