TCS layoffs: Karnataka labour department calls for conciliation meeting on Aug 6

TCS will trim its workforce by two percent, impacting 12,000 jobs over FY26.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) faces yet another action following its 2% workforce layoff anouncement; this time from the Labour Department as the Karnataka State IT/ITeS Employees Union (KITU) filed a complaint on July 30.

The employee union's representatives met Additional Labour Commissioner G. Manjunath and filed an industrial dispute against TCS regarding its mass layoffs plans in FY26.

The union is demanding prosecution of the management for violations of the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, as well as the conditions imposed by the Government of Karnataka concerning the reporting of service particulars.

On July 27, Moneycontrol had exclusively reported that TCS is planning to cut around 2% of its global workforce translating to around 12,200 jobs, in phases over FY26. The move will be majorly impacting mid and senior level employees.

KITU also demanded the initiation of criminal proceedings against the officials involved in the criminal act of forcing employees to resign, after receiving complaints from several of its members.

Sources told Moneycontrol that the Labour Department is likely to issue a notice to TCS management following a complaint filed by KITU over the recent layoffs.

The labour department will be calling TCS for a conciliation meeting on August 6, sources said.

"According to the Industrial Disputes Act, companies employing more than 100 workers are required to obtain prior approval from the government before carrying out any layoffs or retrenchments. Such retrenchments are permitted only for specific reasons and under conditions clearly defined in the Act. This well-established and consistently upheld labour jurisprudence has been violated by the TCS management, which has resorted to the criminal practice of forcing employees to resign," the union said in a statement.

This comes right after another employee union The Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES) has sent two letters to the office of the CLC in recent days, seeking the ministry’s intervention in the matter.

The chief labour commissioner (CLC), under the Union labour ministry too has summoned senior executives of TCS on Friday, August 1, to discuss matters linked to mass layoffs and delays in getting new hires on board.