TCS Layoffs: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s largest IT services company, on Thursday addressed concerns over workforce reductions, stating it has “released” one per cent, or 6,000 employees, as part of a restructuring exercise. CHRO Sudeep Kunnumal sought to dismiss “extremely exaggerated numbers” circulating online, urging the public to disregard them.
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One Per Cent Workforce Released, Hiring Continues
Asked about the scale of layoffs amid fears that the number could be as high as 50,000-80,000, Kunnumal said, “a lot of these numbers are not factual, are extremely exaggerated” and “should be disregarded.” He emphasized, “As we speak today, we are close to one per cent of people, that we have released in mid and senior level, whom we could not redeploy in the right role.” When asked if one per cent translated into 6,000 people only, he confirmed, “yes, right at the mid and senior level segment.”
Meanwhile, IT workers’ union Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES) reported that TCS had a closing headcount of 593,314 employees in Q2 FY26, compared to 613,069 in Q1 FY26, representing a net reduction of 19,755 employees in a single quarter. Kunnumal also highlighted that TCS hired 18,500 people in the just-ended quarter and reassured, “As an organisation, we will continue to honour all the offers.”
Focus on Future-Ready Organisation and Employee Benefits
On whether TCS would maintain its previously announced 40,000-plus hiring target for FY26, Kunnumal said, “I don’t want to give you a number…based on business demand, we will support and we will try to bring the best of the talent for our organisation to shape the journey.” He added that the company aims to become the world’s largest AI-led tech services company.
Regarding earlier layoffs, Kunnumal said, “What we had communicated when we initiated this exercise, is that we will do this with a lot of empathy and respect. And I want to say with conviction and confidence that we did that, we created dedicated teams to have extreme empathetic conversations, to be able to help them with that. We did some benchmark on severance packages for the people (who were affected).”
He also assured employees that TCS will continue paying quarterly bonuses, stating, “Basically, it covers all the people who have been with our organisation, who are entitled for the quarterly bonus, except maybe for new joinees… but it covers practically every one… normally, at the junior level we have been paying 100 per cent, which is what will continue and for seniors, we will pay a higher amount, which is again based on the individual and unit performance.”