TCS to fire 2000 senoir staff in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: IT behemoth Tata Consultancy Services' decision to lay off 'under-performing' employees is snowballing into a major controversy with those affected calling the 'selective' targeting of mid-level managers 'non-transparent and unethical'.

Sources in the organisation put the total number of employees being shown the door at 30,000 including around 2,000 who are currently working in Hyderabad.

While the restructuring exercise is ostentatiously 'performance-based', the rumour is that the company wants to cut costs by getting the job done by trainees who cost much less than experienced personnel.

Employees affected by the decision allege that most of those who have been served termination notices have been working with the organisation for over a decade.

'This is an arbitrary decision. They are terminating some good performers also and even those who have been working on-site for quite a few years,' says a TCS Hyderabad employee who wants to remain anonymous.

'Those who have been working on projects for many years are also being laid off not just those who are on bench (unallocated to any project). They are just offering two months' salary and a 30-day notice period and asking the employee to resign,' he says. He adds that HR managers said that this move would go on till June next year.

The employees have decided to protest the move under the aegis of 'Young Tamil Nadu Movement', a rights-advocacy group of IT employees based in Chennai.

They have created a page on Facebook with the name 'We are against TCS layoff' which has been liked by nearly 5,000 persons and claim that they have had nearly five lakh views since the restructuring decision was first reported in the media.

Young Tamil Nadu Movement member Parimala says that TCS' move was unethical as the company was firing employees despite making good profits.

'TCS recruited 61,000 persons during this fiscal as against their target of 55,000. They just want to burden trainees and senior managers and remove the middle managers,' she says, adding that other IT companies like Infy will slowly follow suit.

She adds that they are organising protests at various TCS offices in South India. 'We have organised a protest today. We are planning for one tomorrow in Bengaluru and will soon plan for a similar protest in Hyderabad,' she says.

However, industry bodies say that the move is a business decision and there is nothing unethical about it. HYSEA president Ramesh Loganathan says that the decision taken by TCS is definitely a tough decision but companies will have their business compulsions.

'I don't think any company will love to fire their employees. But if the company felt that it is a good decision, it may go ahead because they have to make the business sustainable at the end of the day,' he says.