TCS treating long-serving workforce as disposable: MP writes to government

With the Indian IT major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) under fire for allegedly resorting to “coerced resignations” and “illegal termination” of thousands of employees across the country, a Lok Sabha MP, who is also a member of the Standing Committee on Labour, Textiles and Skill Development, has demanded urgent government intervention to halt “illegal layoffs” by the company and the broader Indian IT/ ITES sector.

- SHIKHA SALARIA

Stating that the July announcement of TCS to terminate over 12,000 employees was not an “isolated case,” MP from Bihar’s Karakat, Raja Ram Singh has written to Labour and Employment Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw that the actual figure appears much higher.

“This is not an isolated case but part of a wider sectoral trend where profit is prioritised at the cost of workers’ livelihoods’,” reads the letter which was sent to the two Union Ministers on October 1. The letter is in the possession of The Sunday Guardian.

Speaking to The Sunday Guardian, Singh said that the government should take cognisance of his letter and the issue.

The MP further stressed that while TCS claims that these retrenchments were due to skill mismatch, the company’s “own annual report for FY 2024-25 showed that 91 per cent of employees received skill-upgradation training.”

“Clearly, these cuts are part of a global shift in employment policy from ‘growth at any cost’ to ‘profit at any cost’,” the MP wrote, alleging rampant labour law noncompliance by IT companies.

Emphasising that the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 requires prior government permission before retrenchment in larger establishmentments, Singh further said that no IT company has complied with the same. He further expressed concern about the IT/ITES firms grossly misusing the exemption granted to them by the Karnataka government from the compliance of the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, adding that they had been ignoring "the mandatory grievance redressal and reporting requirements." "Over 1.5 lakh workers were retrenched in 2024 alone, entirely in violation of law," he wrote in his letter.

'TCS TREATED LONGSERVING WORKFORCE AS DISPOSABLE'