TCS gets notice over in onboarding of lateral recruits

IT major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has received a notice from the Maharashtra state government’s deputy labour commissioner’s office in Pune over the delay in onboarding of lateral recruits. The company’s management representatives have been called for a meeting on November 2 to resolve the issue.

The labour office was responding to complaints filed by the Nascent Information Technology Employment Senate (NITES), an IT employees’ union. Both affected persons and company representatives have been told to attend the joint meeting in Pune.

While filing the July letter, there were 200 complaints from Pune and Mumbai but the number has swelled to 2,000 Pan-India, Harpreet Singh Saluja, president, NITES, said. Of this, around 1,000 employees resigned from their previous jobs, as per NITES data, he said.

This delay with no clear timeframe of when TCS would honour the offer has caused hardship to employees, NITES said. These employees have resigned from their previous jobs after receiving offer letters and getting firm joining dates from TCS, he said. However, the company failed to honour the commitments and many were told about the delay in onboarding when they went to join the company, Saluja said. These delays range from three to eight months.

The recruits include people with experience ranging from 1.8 years to 15 years. With the hiring freeze and IT companies announcing job cuts, it has become difficult for them to get alternative jobs, he said.

NITES has sought payment of full salary for the period of delay in onboarding, access to the TCS’ employee assistance programme and collaboration with affected employees to identify alternative employment within TCS.