Employee rights organisation Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES) issued a letter to the Ministry of Labour and Employment, requesting prompt government action, The Economic Times reported.
Professionals with 2 to 18 years of expertise who are impacted come from Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Delhi, among other tech hubs in India.
In the July 22 letter to Mansukh Mandaviya, the Minister of Labour and Employment, the complaint claimed that over 600 lateral hires, who were seasoned professionals who had accepted job offers from the Tata Group’s IT major “in good faith and resigned from their previous organisations,” were now being told to wait indefinitely to join the company.
Relying on official offers and joining dates from TCS, people reportedly quit stable employment, moved, and made financial and personal commitments.
The NITES has called for the Labour Ministry to step in and address the impact of these ‘indefinite delays’ in the onboarding procedures. The current circumstance has affected several employees, who made financial and personal commitments based on the stated joining dates.
No assurance, updated schedule, or follow-up has been provided. “We receive desperate calls and emails every day from professionals who feel abandoned and deceived,” Harpreet Singh Saluja, president of NITES and an advocate at the Bombay High Court, stated.
TCS’s Remarks on the Issue
TCS has admitted to the delays and blamed changing deal-closure dates and business requirements. The tech giant has reaffirmed that it will fulfil all of its obligations and that all individuals who received the offer letter will be onboarded.
“TCS is committed to honouring all offers… joining dates are decided as per business demand… we remain in continuous touch with all candidates in these cases,” a company official told ET.
TCS was accused of delaying the onboarding of at least 200 experienced tech workers in 2023 as well. Milind Lakkad, the chief human resources officer at TCS at the time, blamed the situation on project delays, per Outlook Business.
TCS and its competitors in the IT services industry have previously postponed onboarding following offer letters.
The majority of IT behemoths, such as Infosys, TCS, Wipro, and others, extended thousands of offers to fresh graduates after the pandemic because of the spike in demand for their services. However, companies started postponing onboarding as these deals dried up.
