TCS to face labour ministry scrutiny over 12,000 job cuts and hiring delays

The chief labour commissioner (CLC), under the Union labour ministry, has summoned senior executives of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on August 1, to discuss matters linked to mass layoffs and delays in getting new hires on board. It was reported earlier that TCS would trim its workforce by 2 percent, affecting 12,000 jobs, over FY26.

Following this, the Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate has written two letters to the CLC office, seeking the ministry’s intervention in the matter.

In its July 28 letter, NITES termed the layoffs at TCS "inhumane", "unethical" and "outright illegal", and sought an immediate halt to all terminations and the reinstatement of affected employees.

"There is a meeting on Friday to discuss the matter… Can’t comment on any outcome," a ministry official told a business daily.

On Sunday, the leading daily reported that TCS would trim its workforce by 2 percent, affecting 12,000 jobs, over FY26.

"This is not because of AI giving some 20 percent productivity gains. We are not doing that. This is driven by where there is a skill mismatch or where we think that we have not been able to deploy someone," CEO K Krithivasan said.

“Most of those affected are mid- and senior-level professionals who have served the company loyally for 10 to 20 years. The email was callously sent on a Sunday evening, without prior notice or any formal communication process in place. This mass layoff is not only unethical and inhumane; it is outright illegal. TCS has planned to terminate thousands of employees without giving them due notice or any prior intimation to the government, all of which are mandatory under existing Indian labour laws," Harpreet Singh Saluja, president of NITES, said in the letter.