According to sources, the Labour Department sent a notice to the company after the Karnataka State IT/ITeS Employees Union (KITU) filed an industrial dispute case, following a controversy surrounding a layoff announcement and alleged forced resignations at IT major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).
Conciliatory Meeting Scheduled for August 6
A conciliatory conference between KITU representatives and TCS management, with Labour Department officials present, is scheduled for August 6, according to several media outlets. TCS declared on July 27 that 2% of its employees worldwide would be let go.
This would represent over 12,000 workers. The company’s new “Bench Policy,” which caps an employee’s time on the bench at 35 hours per year, has also sparked allegations of coerced resignations. Employees complain that they have too little time to locate appropriate tasks and that this places the burden of project finding on them.
Inside TCS’s Controversial New Bench Policy
In response to these events, union representatives met with officials from the Labour Department on July 29 and filed a case against TCS for illegal mass retrenchment. They demanded that the management be prosecuted for violating the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, and the Karnataka government’s requirements regarding the reporting of service particulars.
The Industrial Disputes Act mandates that businesses with more than 100 employees must first get government approval before implementing any layoffs or retrenchments. Such layoffs are only allowed for certain purposes and under circumstances that are spelt out in detail in the Act.
According to the union, TCS workers who were allegedly being pressured to quit by management filed many complaints. A media outlet interviewed a mid-level TCS employee who said that hundreds of workers from the company’s Bengaluru branch had been pushed to quit over the previous two weeks.
TCS Responds: ‘Building a Future-Ready Workforce’
TCS said it is working to become a future-ready company in response to questions from the media. This covers a number of strategic goals, such as investing in new technology, breaking into new markets, implementing AI on a large scale for both TCS and its clients, strengthening its alliances, developing next-generation infrastructure, and reorienting our workforce model.
Numerous reskilling and redeployment programs have been in progress in order to achieve this. TCS will also be letting go of associates from the company whose deployment might not be possible as part of this journey.
Over the course of the year, this will affect roughly 2% of the company’s staff worldwide, mostly in the middle and senior grades. To make sure that its clients’ service delivery is unaffected, this transition is being carefully handled.
TCS is aware that its coworkers who may be impacted are going through a difficult moment. It expressed gratitude for their service and promised to do everything in its power to offer suitable benefits, outplacement, counselling, and assistance as they move on to new opportunities.
Tata Consultancy Services, the biggest provider of IT services in India, announced on 27 July that it will cut 2% of its personnel in its 2026 fiscal year, mostly affecting middle and senior management.
About 12,200 positions will be lost as a result of the company’s retraining and redeploying of employees as it enters new markets, makes investments in new technologies, and uses AI. According to a statement from TCS, the action is a component of the company’s larger plan to become a “future-ready organisation” that emphasises personnel restructuring, market expansion, AI deployment, and technological expenditures.
The business also stated that this change is being carefully planned to guarantee that our clients’ service delivery won’t be impacted.
Why Is TCS Laying Off Employees?
India’s $283 billion IT industry has had to deal with customers delaying non-essential technology purchases due to low demand, ongoing inflation, and lingering trade policy uncertainties from the United States. K. Krithivasan, the CEO of TCS, stated this month that customer decision-making and project start times were delayed. As of June 30, 2025, TCS employed 613,069 people. In the most recent quarter, which ended in April and June, it added 5,000 new staff.
TCS Financials Amid Layoffs: Q1 2025 Results
On July 10, TCS announced that its net profit for the June quarter had increased by 6% to INR 12,760 crore. In the same period last year, the Tata group company reported a net profit of INR 12,040 crore. The company’s sales decreased 3% when considering constant currency, although it increased 1.3% to INR 63,437 crore from INR 62,613 crore in the same time last year. According to a corporate statement, its operating profit margin increased by 0.30% on a quarterly basis to 24.5% during the April–June period.
TCS Responds to Onboarding Delay Concerns
The largest IT services provider in India, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), has stated that it is still dedicated to onboarding all experts who have been offered positions, despite several reports that experienced hires in various cities have been facing extended delays in their joining dates. TCS can confirm that, as usual, TCS is committed to honouring all offers we have made, whether they are to experienced professionals or freshmen, according to the company’s statement provided to People Matters.
The company will onboard all of the people who have gotten an offer from TCS. The joining dates are chosen based on company need, and occasionally they are modified to accommodate our demands. In these situations, TCS stays in constant communication with each candidate and hopes they will soon join our team.
The clarification comes as professionals who claim to have resigned from their prior positions to join TCS, citing official offer letters and specific start dates, are becoming increasingly concerned. Many of these professionals were hired for lateral positions in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Delhi. Their experience ranged from two to eighteen years.
The largest IT services provider in India, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), has stated that it is still dedicated to onboarding all experts who have been offered positions, despite several reports that experienced hires in various cities have been facing extended delays in their joining dates. TCS can confirm that, as usual, TCS is committed to honouring all offers we have made, whether they are to experienced professionals or freshmen, according to the company’s statement provided to People Matters.
What Led to the Onboarding Delays?
The company will onboard all of the people who have gotten an offer from TCS. The joining dates are chosen based on company need, and occasionally they are modified to accommodate our demands. In these situations, TCS stays in constant communication with each candidate and hopes they will soon join our team.
The clarification comes as professionals who claim to have resigned from their prior positions to join TCS, citing official offer letters and specific start dates, are becoming increasingly concerned. Many of these professionals were hired for lateral positions in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Delhi. Their experience ranged from two to eighteen years.
Candidates Share Frustrations Over Delayed Joining
Some applicants claim that because their names were not on the onboarding list, they were refused admission to TCS’s facilities on the day they were supposed to start working there. Others claim that after getting the first confirmation, the company’s HR personnel stopped communicating for a long time.
NITES Demands Government Intervention
The Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES) raised awareness of the problem and requested government action in a representation written to the Union Labour and Employment Ministry.
Hundreds of mid- to senior-level professionals have been impacted by the delays, the company claims, and many of them had already committed financially and personally based on their anticipated onboarding.
In order to promote the health of those impacted, NITES advised the ministry to ask TCS for a formal, time-bound onboarding strategy, provide reimbursement for the delay, and expand employee assistance programs.
TCS Clarifies: No Offers Have Been Withdrawn
Although TCS has not disclosed how many people are impacted, the company’s official stance underlines that no offers have been revoked. According to the organisation, it is common practice in the IT services industry to schedule onboarding according to business needs, particularly during times of fluctuating demand or client project modifications.
Large IT companies frequently use this kind of workforce planning flexibility, albeit entry-level employees usually bear the brunt of it. The recent developments are noteworthy due to the fact that they involve experienced lateral recruits, a significant number of whom left stable employment prior to the onboarding delay.
IT Sector Struggles with Global Demand Fluctuations
The incident occurs at a time when the Indian IT services sector is struggling with worldwide project delays, margin challenges, and irregular demand patterns. Many companies have paused hiring or adjusted their onboarding strategies, especially after hiring too many people during the 2021–2022 surge in demand for digital transformation.
Although employment offer letters may contain legally enforceable terms, most contain provisions that permit employers to postpone start dates in accordance with internal business needs, according to legal experts. However, trade organisations and impacted professionals contend that a lack of clarity on onboarding deadlines or extended silence can damage trust and cause significant personal pain.
Thousands of benched employees are facing uncertainty as the first 35-day cycle under Tata Consultancy Services’ (TCS) new bench policy comes to a conclusion on July 17. Many of them are expressing their anxiety on social media.
After the policy went into effect on June 12, employees run the possibility of having their careers hampered or even terminated if they spend more than 35 days a year in a bench period, or time without any project allocation.
Employees at TCS frequently post on online sites like Reddit to voice their concerns. Some workers claim they are being pushed into projects that don’t fit their skill sets, while others have been rushing for projects. According to several Reddit threads, some people are being turned down for client interviews, while others are having trouble finding work in their hometowns.
Job Uncertainty Looming on TCS’ Employees
There is also no indication of how many people will be affected. An average of 15–18% of workers in top Indian IT companies are often on the bench, according to industry estimates. The largest IT business in India, TCS, employs over 613,000 people.
On 16 July, an employee welfare organisation called on Union Labour Minister Mansukh Mandaviya to act immediately against TCS for the implemented bench policy, which it described as “inhumane,” “exploitative,” and psychologically upsetting for IT workers.
The Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES) accused the IT behemoth of repeatedly threatening to fire bench staff and deny them experience letters if they don’t achieve irrational deployment deadlines in a letter to the minister.
In the letter, NITES President Harpreet Singh Saluja stated that these are skilled experts who are momentarily without allocation, not underperforming workers. They encounter mistrust, compulsion, and threats in place of assistance.
Some Employees Calling TCS’s Move a Positive Stroke
Some workers, however, are in favour of TCS’ decision, claiming that a number of workers have been on the bench for years, turning down projects that were presented to them. While some of them used the opportunity to pursue more education and overall performed poorly at work.
According to a Reddit user, this may help TCS trim some seriously underperforming resources, those stuck on TCS like a leech. It has always been expected that associates take responsibility for their careers, TCS CEO and managing director K. Krithivasan told a media outlet in support of the new bench policy.
The organisation expects employees to actively look for new tasks after finishing current ones, even if HR promotes project placement. This is just a better organised form of what has been done for a long time. The company wants to cut down on bench time. The business makes significant investments in upskilling, he said.
According to him, higher authorities make sure associates are deployed after the corporation makes that investment. Although preferences are taken into account, customer needs—not individual preferences—are what drive projects. Individuals are deployed by the organisation in accordance with training, demand, and skill alignment.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the biggest IT company in India, has stated that raising wages for its more than 6 lakh employees is their “priority” goal.
TCS’ Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Samir Seksaria stated, “My priority is getting back to the wage hike,” without giving an exact date for the increase in staff salaries. In addition, Seksaria told a news agency that, in contrast to its competitors, the company has “rarely” resorted to postponing pay increases.
Seksaria also stated unequivocally that TCS will prioritise profitability and growth. Milind Lakkad, the Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) of TCS, stated earlier this week that the company has not yet decided whether to raise wages.
On July 10, 2025, Milind Lakkad informed the media that the company has not yet taken any decisions regarding pay increases. The corporation typically announces pay increases that take effect on April 1st of each year.
According to a media agency article that quoted the CFO, TCS’s operational profit margin is squeezed by more than 1.50% as a result of the yearly compensation increase for its staff.
In the April-June quarter, TCS’s operating margins decreased 20 basis points to 24.5%, despite the company’s intention to increase them to 26-28% levels.
Attrition Rate a Major Concern-CFO
As of the end of the April to June quarter of FY2025-26, the attrition rate for TCS employees increased by 13.8% on a last twelve-month (LTM) basis.
Compared to its 13.3% levels in the January-March quarter of FY 2024-25, this represented a little increase on a quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) basis.
The company will now concentrate on keeping top-level talent, which is hard to develop through new hires, after the attrition rate reached a “concerning level” as of the April-June quarter, according to the CFO.
According to the agency report, he also made a suggestion that the corporation may halt lateral hirings until demand spikes because it now has capacity.
TCS’ Growth Strategy
Following the release of the quarterly results, Seksaria told the news agency that TCS also intends to concentrate on growth and profitability following the April-June quarter, during which the IT giant encountered challenges with growth and margins.
Seksaria informed the press that TCS will prioritise profitability and expansion. Profitability alone is insufficient without development. Compared to INR 12,040 crore in the same quarter last year, the IT company’s consolidated net earnings increased 6% to INR 12,760 crore for the April–June quarter of the 2025–26 fiscal year.
In the meantime, the first quarter’s consolidated revenues increased 1.3% to INR 63,437 crore from INR 62,613 crore in the same period last year.
According to the news agency, which cited Seksaria, TCS has no plans to reduce its investments in expansion; nevertheless, there may be “realignments,” such as constructing only a portion of a structure on a plot.
In the dynamic global technology world, few leaders have made as profound an impact as Aarthi Subramanian, who recently became Indian IT’s first woman Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). In an industry still grappling with gender disparity at the top, Aarthi has broken barriers, not just for herself but for countless women in tech. She has spent more than 20 years at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), having joined the company in 1989.
As of 2025, her strategic leadership has not only solidified TCS’s position as a global IT powerhouse but also earned her a spot among the most influential women in business.
But what truly sets Subramanian apart is her ability to balance operational rigor with a people-first approach. Her initiatives in employee upskilling and diversity have been widely lauded, making TCS one of the most desirable workplaces in the tech industry.
Aarthi Subramanian – Biography
Name
Aarthi Subramanian
Born
1972
Nationality
Indian
Education
B.Tech in Computer Science, National Institute of Technology, Warangal Master’s in Engineering Management, University of Kansas, USA
Aarthi Subramanian was born in 1972 into a middle-class South Indian family, where discipline and academic excellence were core values. From a young age, she was naturally inclined towards science and technology, often tinkering with gadgets and problem-solving puzzles. This curiosity, combined with a rigorous educational background, laid the groundwork for what would become a remarkable career in tech leadership.
Aarthi completed her B.Tech in Computer Science from the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Warangal, one of India’s premier engineering institutes. She stood out not just academically, but also as a student who was naturally drawn to leadership roles and collaborative problem-solving.
With an ambition to understand how engineering dovetails with business, she moved to the United States to pursue a Master’s in Engineering Management from the University of Kansas. There, she honed her technical knowledge with an understanding of organizational strategy, which later helped her manage large-scale digital transformation projects across continents.
Aarthi Subramanian – Career Achievements
In a corporate world where leadership roles have long been dominated by men, Aarthi Subramanian shattered the glass ceiling with quiet determination and unparalleled capability.
Aarthi began her career at TCS in 1989 as a graduate trainee. Over the years, she advanced through roles as an analyst and project manager, eventually transitioning from account management to a senior executive position.
In 2015, she made headlines as the first woman to be appointed to the Board of Directors at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a historic moment not just for the Tata Group but for India Inc. at large. It was more than just a board appointment; it was a signal that times were changing, and that merit, grit, and vision could no longer be confined by gender.
As an Executive Director on the TCS board, she was responsible for some of the company’s most mission-critical initiatives. One of the standout projects under her stewardship was the Passport Seva Project, a transformative program launched in collaboration with the Government of India.
This initiative dramatically streamlined and digitized India’s passport issuance system, reducing waiting times, boosting transparency, and improving citizen satisfaction on a national scale. What was once a bureaucratic ordeal became a digital-first, customer-friendly experience thanks, in large part, to Aarthi’s precision in delivery governance and compliance oversight. But Aarthi wasn’t done making waves.
In 2017, she was handpicked by Tata Sons Chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran to join the group’s central leadership team as the Group Chief Digital Officer (CDO). This marked her transition from operational execution to strategic innovation, her new mandate: lead the digital transformation of the entire Tata Group.
As of 2025, Aarthi Subramanian holds the role of Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Tata Sons, where she continues to drive cross-group synergies, operational excellence, and digital innovation across one of India’s largest and most respected conglomerates. Her dual experience at both TCS and the Tata Group gives her a rare 360-degree view of business operations at scale.
Yet, what truly distinguishes Aarthi is her commitment to nurturing talent. She has institutionalized mentorship programs that have propelled women into leadership roles across Tata’s tech divisions, creating a legacy of inclusivity. Her leadership mantra, “Innovate relentlessly, but never lose sight of the human element,” has reshaped corporate culture, proving that empathy and ambition can coexist at the highest levels of business.
At Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Aarthi Subramanian wasn’t just a senior executive; she was the person everyone turned to when things got tough. Her style of leadership was clear, practical, and full of action. She believed in solving problems fast, sticking to promises, and helping people grow.
Let’s break down how she made such a big impact at TCS.
The Passport Seva Success Story
One of her biggest achievements at TCS was leading the Passport Seva Project for the Government of India. The project aimed to make passport services faster and digital-friendly. Under her leadership, TCS helped set up modern passport centers, trained government staff, and built a smooth tech system.
Thanks to her work, what used to be a slow, paper-heavy process turned into a fast and efficient online service. This project is still praised as one of the best examples of public-private partnerships in India.
Early Adopter of Agile
Even before “Agile” became a buzzword in the IT world, Aarthi was already using its principles. She promoted flexible, small-team working models that helped deliver faster results for clients. She believed that innovation didn’t need to wait—it should be part of everyday work.
Most Powerful Women in Business (2018) : Aarthi Subramanian was recognized in Business Today’s “Most Powerful Women in Business” list in 2018. At that time, she served as the Chief Digital Officer at Tata Sons, leading the group’s digital transformation initiatives.
Technology Leader of the Year (2019) : Aarthi Subramanian was honored with the ‘Technology Leader of the Year’ award at the inaugural ETPrime Women Leadership Awards (ETPWLA) in 2019.
Top 25 Women Leaders in IT Services (2020): In 2020, The IT Services Report ranked her third among the top 25 women leaders in IT services globally.
Aarthi Subramanian – Technology Leader of the Year (2019)
Aarthi Subramanian – Interesting Facts
Diversity Advocate: Aarthi has been a passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion within TCS. She is committed to creating a workplace where women, in particular, can thrive in tech. Her leadership reflects her belief in nurturing talent diversity as a cornerstone for the company’s success.
Key to Expanding TCS’s Global Footprint: Her strategic vision has been pivotal in TCS’s global expansion, especially in new and emerging markets. Aarthi’s leadership has been crucial in growing TCS’s client base and market reach in countries beyond North America and Europe, including regions like Latin America and the Asia-Pacific.
Expert in Transformation and Innovation : Under her leadership, Tata Sons has significantly bolstered its digital transformation capabilities. Aarthi is known for her ability to drive innovative solutions and digital transformation projects that help clients enhance their business models. She has been instrumental in positioning Tata Sons as a leader in areas like cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), and automation.
FAQs
Who is Aarthi Subramanian?
Aarthi Subramanian is a prominent figure at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), notably recognized as the company’s first woman Chief Operating Officer (COO).
What is Aarthi Subramanian‘s educational background?
Aarthi completed B.Tech in Computer Science, National Institute of Technology, Warangal and Master’s in Engineering Management, University of Kansas, USA.
What was Aarthi Subramanian’s initial role at TCS?
Aarthi began her career at TCS in 1989 as a graduate trainee. Over the years, she advanced through roles as an analyst and project manager, eventually transitioning from account management to a senior executive position.
