Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has delayed onboarding over around 600 experienced lateral hires, sending out a communication about ‘indefinite delay’, sharing no revised timelines for these technology professionals to join the IT giant.Raising the issue with the government, the Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES) has written to Union Labour Minister Mansukh Mandaviya calling for immediate action, stressing on the impact of this uncertainty on the financial and mental health of the professionals.
What’s the TCS Delay in Onboarding?
NITES addressed a letter to Mandaviya on July 22, highlighting that individuals with formal job offers from TCS were affected by indefinite postponement of their joining dates, according to an ET report.The letter indicates that candidates from several major Indian cities including Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Delhi were affected by this situation.According to NITES, the affected professionals, with a work experience between two to eighteen years, have submitted their resignations from previous positions based on their expected joining dates at TCS.Also Read | TCS new benching policy: Employees face uncertainty, fear layoffs – here’s what’s happeningWhen these individuals arrived at TCS on their designated joining dates, they were notified about an unspecified postponement. Since then, there has been no further updates, modified schedules or confirmations provided, the letter said.NITES indicated that this postponement has left these professionals without employment and economically insecure, finding it difficult to pay their instalments, rental payments and daily living costs.“Beyond the financial strain, the emotional and psychological distress caused by this sudden state of uncertainty is deeply worrying,” said Harpreet Singh Saluja, president of NITES and an advocate at the Bombay High Court. “Every day, we receive desperate calls and emails from professionals who feel abandoned and deceived.”This follows recent legal complaints by TCS employees regarding the company’s new bench policy, which stipulates a 35-day limit for employees without project assignments.Also Read | ‘Character assassination’: Delhi HC asks Wipro to pay Rs 2 lakh for defamation of ex-employee; termination letter full of ‘stigma and insinuations’
What TCS Has Said About Delayed Onboarding
According to the ET report, TCS has affirmed its commitment to fulfil all employment offers extended to both freshers and experienced professionals. The company was quoted as saying, “We can confirm that, as always, TCS is committed to honour all offers we have made, whether it is to freshers or experienced professionals. Everyone who has received an offer from TCS, will be onboarded. The joining dates are decided as per business demand and in some cases, they do get adjusted to meet our business needs. We remain in continuous touch with all candidates in these cases and look forward to them joining our company soon.“NITES has submitted a formal request to the labour ministry, seeking their intervention to ensure TCS provides definitive timelines for the onboarding process of the affected candidates.The organisation’s demands include financial compensation for the delayed period, provision of mental health support through TCS’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP), and the possibility of alternative positions within the organisation for the affected individuals.
