NITES writes to Labour Minister says layoffs at TCS unethical will hit many livelihoods

New Delhi, Jul 28 (PTI) Slamming the layoffs at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) as "unethical" and "outright illegal", IT employees' union NITES on Monday wrote to Labour Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, urging him to direct the company to halt all terminations immediately and reinstate affected employees.
    The Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES) has advocated for the framing of stricter safeguards for the IT sector, claiming that the industry currently suffers from a lack of enforceable employment protections.
    The IT employees union - which had earlier picked up cudgels on behalf of over 300 Infosys trainees at Mysuru campus - has termed TCS' latest move as unethical, inhumane, and outright illegal.
    NITES has appealed to the government to direct the company to immediately halt all terminations and reinstate affected employees. It has also called for an "inquiry into the systemic pattern of forced exits, delayed onboarding, and unlawful retrenchments by TCS".
     India's largest IT services company TCS is preparing to lay off 12,261 employees or two per cent of its global workforce this year. The bulk of the impact will be felt on middle and senior grades.
     TCS's workforce stood at 6,13,069, as of June 30, 2025. It increased its workforce by 5,000 employees in the recently concluded April-June quarter.
    Labelling TCS' latest move as a blatant and wilful violation of the law, NITES said: "The law clearly states that no employee who has served for over a year can be retrenched unless the company provides one month’s notice or wages in lieu, pays statutory retrenchment compensation, and notifies the government.
    TCS, it claimed, has not complied with any of these requirements.
    The impact of such action is devastating, NITES said in its letter, adding that thousands of working professionals with families, EMIs, and financial commitments would suddenly lose their livelihood.
    The psychological, emotional, and financial trauma of this move is unimaginable, Harpreet Singh Saluja, President of NITES wrote.
    NITES further alleged that TCS's move, in no way, can be called restructuring.
    "This is a mass sacking dressed in corporate jargon...If a company of TCS’s scale is allowed to carry out mass layoffs without following due process and without consequences, it will set a dangerous precedent for other companies," Saluja wrote in the letter to the Labour Minister.
    TCS's proposed move "will normalise job insecurity, erode employee rights, and severely damage trust in India’s employment ecosyste," NITES emphasised.
    It has appealed to the government to take immediate cognisance of this development and issue a notice to TCS seeking an explanation.
    It has also batted for framing of stricter safeguards for the IT sector, arguing that the industry currently suffers from lack of enforceable employment protections.
    "If this injustice is not addressed immediately, NITES, along with allied IT employee unions across India, will be forced to organise nationwide protests, legal campaigns, and public demonstrations to ensure that the voices of thousands of affected employees are heard," NITES said.
    Meanwhile, Jefferies in a report titled "TCS’ layoffs - A canary in the mine?" said the company's move to cut two per cent of its workforce may lead to execution slippages in the near-term and higher attrition in the longer run for the firm.
    It is also reflective of a weak demand environment for the sector, according to the report.
    "The move by TCS reflects its growing focus on conserving margins amid continued growth pressures and is the third such move in the past three months after deferral of wage hikes in Apr-25 and the benching guidelines introduced in Jun -25 which restricted the non-billable period of an employee to 35 days/year," Jefferies said.
    Jefferies' note further said that despite not being the best paymaster, TCS has enjoyed lower-than-industry attrition levels as it offered a long-term career path and job stability to its employees.
    "In the near term, the ongoing lay-offs will hurt employee morale and could potentially lead to execution slippages. In the longer run, such policies could drive a sharp rise in attrition, similar to what was seen at Cognizant during 2020-22," it said..
    Given the current demand uncertainties, the earnings outlook for IT firms may remain subdued, Jefferies said, adding it remains selective on the sector.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)