After Madras HC order, TCS denies plan to initiate large scale exits

India’s largest software company Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on Tuesday said that it does not plan to initiate any large scale exits.

We would like to place on record that TCS has not initiated, & is not planning to initiate, any large scale exits in any part of TCS.

— Tata Consultancy Services (@TCS) January 13, 2015

The response by TCS was prompted after Madras High Court on Tuesday stayed the termination of Rekha who joined TCS as an IT analyst in March 2011. Rekha, who is pregnant was issued termination orders on 22 December 2014 and was informed that she would be relieved from duty on 21 January 2015.

Rekha said, the company reportedly had taken an unfair decision to terminate the services of 25,000 workers holding designation of assistant consultant and above, and to recruit 55,000 persons, predominately freshers on the basis of campus interviews, and other less experienced persons with to cut costs.

On 12 December, TCS global human resources head Ajoyendra Mukherjee said, “We want to increase the entry-level salary offered to freshers to attract more talented youth and ensure their retention with bright opportunities to move up the value chain and have made job offers to 31,000 youth in the first eight months of this fiscal.”

However, the firm said that one percent of its total employees (techies) would be fired this fiscal for non-performance or failure to specialise in a particular domain required for its various projects

The total involuntary attrition (terminating service) for FY15 will be around one percent, it was 0.8 percent (2,574 employees) for the first nine months the company tweeted.

The total involuntary attrition for the current fiscal year will be around 1%.

— Tata Consultancy Services (@TCS) January 13, 2015

Our involuntary attrition for the first 9 months of FY15 has been 2574 employees which represents 0.8% of total employee strength.

— Tata Consultancy Services (@TCS) January 13, 2015

As the largest employer in the IT industry, TCS currently has a whopping 3,13,757 techies, including over 100,000 women. Freshers account for 60 percent and laterals 40 percent.

The outsourcing major also tweeted that 2,203 employees were laid off in 2013-14 and 2,132 in 2012-13.

The corresponding involuntary attrition numbers for FY14, FY13 were 2203 and 2132 respectively.

— Tata Consultancy Services (@TCS) January 13, 2015

Asserting that performance appraisals were an integral part of its operations, the company claimed that it had neither initiated nor planned to initiate any large scale exits of its staff.

“We have clarified to our employees over the last few weeks that allegations about large scale layoffs were false and baseless,” the statement said.

Observing that the organisation was built on strong employee values, the company said it nurtured in house talent and was the largest job creator in the country.

TCS is the leader in the Indian IT industry and has always built its organization on strong employee values.

— Tata Consultancy Services (@TCS) January 13, 2015

We have consistently nurtured our in house talent and have also been the largest job creators in the country.

— Tata Consultancy Services (@TCS) January 13, 2015

“Our leadership status presents many growth opportunities for our employees and is reflected in the fact that we have the highest employee retention levels in the industry,” the statement said.

Our leadership status in IT industry continues to present growth opportunities for our employees.

— Tata Consultancy Services (@TCS) January 13, 2015

While refuting the buzz on largescale exits, the company also said that it is on target to hire 55,000 techies this fiscal, including 35,000 engineering students from 370 institutions across the country.