TCS informed Moneycontrol that rumors of a larger number of layoffs are untrue and deceptive, and that the effect would only affect 2% of its employees.
The rank-and-file is feeling the effects of Tata Consultancy Services’ (TCS) decision to reduce 2 percent of its staff, or more than 12,000 jobs, two months after TCS chairman K Krithivasan informed Moneycontrol. A surge of abrupt and forced resignations over the last several weeks has raised fears of panic, uncertainty, and worry.
According to IT unions, workers, and other interested parties, the real number of layoffs is far greater than the stated figure. Moneycontrol was unable to determine the exact amount on its own, although other sources suggested it would be far over 30,000.
Since June, almost 10,000 affected workers have come to us directly. The number of layoffs might likely surpass 30,000. These statistics will not appear in TCS’ records since people are asked to resign voluntarily and are not being fired by the firm; they may only appear in their attrition data,” a mid-level TCS employee who is a member of a national IT union told Moneycontrol, requesting anonymity.
A number of IT employee unions have protested and launched campaigns against TCS’s ongoing layoffs over the past few months, including the Karnataka State IT/ITeS Employees Union (KITU), the Forum for IT Employees (FITE), the Union of IT & ITES Employees (UNITE), and the All India IT & ITeS Employees’ Union (AIITEU).
The large number of layoffs cited by the unions, according to a source close to the corporation, is “a story constructed to acquire notoriety,” they said. TCS would not be able to operate as a business with that many workers being let go in the midst of fresh contract wins.
These conjectures are false and deceptive. A TCS representative responded to Moneycontrol’s questions by saying, “As previously indicated, the effect is restricted to 2 percent of our staff.”
An emotion of “betrayal”
The 35-year-old Rohan (name changed), who joined TCS as a campus recruit and had worked there for the previous 13 years, had to quit after five months of “harassment” from the Resource Management Group (RMG) and Human Resources (HR).
He felt “betrayed by the Tata Group-company he had been committed to for over a decade” when he was forced to step down. Even though Rohan chose not to leave, the IT company fired him in the middle of 2025.
According to him, he was even requested to reimburse Rs 6–8 lakhs for the time he spent on the bench. He informed Moneycontrol that TCS had paid the remaining sum, and that only half of that could be deducted from his gratuity and paid time off.
Rohan previously worked on a five-year project for a significant automotive customer. He was only able to secure a one-year project involvement since the project had scaled down. “There was not much business or deals for TCS in this field, therefore after finishing that project, I had to battle to locate another project in this area. I had also contacted the management of other teams.
His release came after a few months of sitting on the bench. Following the revocation of his access, he said that the HR and RMG would often contact him for inquiries during this time.
They attempted to place me under investigation and began threatening me by claiming that I was working part-time for other businesses. “This continued for months, and the mental anguish was worse than going to hell,” he stated.
As of right now, he has been living at a friend’s house for over four months while looking for a new job in Pune. “My hometown family, including my wife and children, are unaware of this. I could not bring myself to share it with them.
Krithivasan informed Moneycontrol in July that the layoffs would occur gradually during FY26 and would affect colleagues at the mid and senior levels.
“We have made significant investments in our workers in order to provide them options for career advancement and deployment. He had said, “But we discover that there are jobs where redeployment has not been beneficial,” referring to Rohan’s experience when he attempted to get a new assignment.
TCS workplaces remain chaotic and fearful
Another ex-employee said that there is a “culture of terror” at his workplace since one never knows “who gets the call next.”
Seniors with eight to ten years of experience are being laid off in my workplace. Right now, there is a great deal of instability, uncertainty, and anxiety in the workplace. Workers are being abruptly asked to leave after receiving emails inviting them to meet with HR. He informed Moneycontrol that some employees are receiving notice of one week, while others must go right now.
Teams are being completely laid off one after another. “There are some people who are working on the new technologies as well,” he said.
Some of the “ongoing projects were disrupted, customers are lowering costs, therefore now TCS needs less personnel on those projects and rest are being let off,” he said.
According to him, juniors are still recruited and given tasks, just more slowly.
Additionally, there are many who claim that TCS has increased hiring this quarter. This suggests that the personnel metrics for the second quarter ending September 30, 2025, would not include the number of workers let go.
The dreaded list of fluidity
Numerous impacted workers informed us that supervisors carry a list, known as the fluidity list, that contains the names of those who would be let go.
The names on the fluidity list are unrelated to the years of experience or skill levels of the personnel. Account managers make these decisions, which may sometimes be arbitrary.
When Moneycontrol exclusively revealed the TCS layoffs in July, the CEO of the IT giant said that the pink slips were due to a lack of opportunity to repurpose workers due to a skills shortage.
“AI’s 20% productivity improvements are not the reason for these layoffs. That is not what we are doing. When there is a talent mismatch or when we believe we have not been able to deploy someone, that is what drives this,” he told Moneycontrol.
Current and past workers, however, disagree
This list relies on senior management or individual Delivery management (DMs) mentioning individuals rather than grades, ratings, or competencies. Included are workers who have passed internal interviews, have high evaluations, or possess in-demand abilities. Even after passing interviews, an employee’s ability to join new projects is restricted once their name is on the list, Vijay (whose name has been altered) informed Moneycontrol.
Numerous current and former workers said that within 30 days after being placed on the feared fluidity list, human resources staff would contact them and offer them the choice to voluntarily leave or risk firing.
Project managers reportedly get back-channel emails from Bench/RMG HR telling them to remove the profiles of individuals on the fluidity list.
Additionally, according to Vijay, TCS customers are offered fictitious explanations, such as “employee is sick” or “childcare concerns,” while in reality, staff members are being let go as a result of internal downsizing.
“People are keeping quiet because they are afraid of reprisals and cannot afford the expense of bringing a lawsuit against the wealthy corporation,” Vijay said.
“People are calling it a fluidity list, but it is not an official phrase,” the aforementioned person close to TCS said. TCS is catching up since it is a big company.
“This is not a typical performance-based leave procedure; it is just’mental harassment’ and’mockery of rules,'” Vijay said.
IT worker unions denounce the action
The method of these layoffs has drawn criticism from a number of IT employee unions, notably the Union of IT & ITES Employees (UNITE) and the Forum for IT Employees (FITE).
“We are seeing requests for resignations within 30 minutes from TCS workers who have worked there for more than 30 years. “Organizations are abusing IT workers,” said Prashant Pandit, FITE Secretary.
Employees have even been pre-dated to be benched despite being assigned to tasks till the end of September, according to UNITE General Secretary Alagunambi Welkin.
The first meeting that these just benched workers attend invariably instructs them to look for new tasks. Then, even if they locate projects and get approval during client rounds, RMG and HR cancel their project deployment,” he said.
They then get a call to quit, giving a variety of reasons
Employees that are fired are not compensated. When they leave, they get a three-month notice period and a severance compensation based on their years of experience, which is equivalent to 15 days of pay times the number of years of experience, according to Welkin.
“In addition, workers might get career assessments, outplacement counseling, and services,” he said. They get up to six months of insurance coverage, and the employee is responsible for paying for it.
TCS’s intentions for layoffs and revisions to its HR policy
“We have been criticizing emerging technology, especially artificial intelligence and modifications to operating models. Work practices are evolving. We must be flexible and prepared for the future. The job layoffs are unrelated to AI, Krithivasan noted, adding, “We have been implementing AI at scale and analyzing capabilities we will need for the future.”
In order to guarantee that they have 225 days of billability across a 12-month period at any one time, TCS implemented a new policy in June that requires workers to proactively approach the RMG with project assignments.
According to the policy, an employee will be subject to disciplinary action, including termination, if they fail to meet the billability objective. Additionally, workers cannot spend more than 35 days a year on the bench.
In summary, terrible layoffs at India’s biggest IT business have altered the perception of the Tata Group as a de facto reliable “government-like” employer. There are still a lot of unresolved issues, but clarity should surface when management addresses the media on October 9 after the release of the quarterly results.