TCS likely to lay off 1,300 staffers

CHENNAI: India���s biggest software exporter by sales, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), will lay off less than a percent of its global workforce over the next few months, as these employees failed to meet performance standards, a company spokesperson said.
This roughly works out to 1,300. The company has a total employee count of around 1.3 lakh.

IT companies are adopting stringent appraisal, cost-trimming and productivity-boosting measures as they grapple with the global economic slow down.

TCS employees said on condition of anonymity that lay-offs have started at the company���s development centres in Chennai, where over 200 employees have been asked to leave in the last fortnight .

When contacted, a member of the TCS corporate communication team confirmed the development but did not put a number or place to it.



���This is mostly employees who have been given a second chance to improve and haven���t . They will be sent over a period , in the next few months. This will constitute less than a percent of our global workforce. We had to let go of 500 people last year on performance issues.���

This comes less than a week after the company���s CEO S Ramadorai said the company would review the variable pay component for its employees and also increase the working hours.

Asked about job cuts, he had said the company wasn���t planning to cut jobs immediately but might have to if the situation worsened.

Employee expenses make up at least 53-54 % of the company���s total cost. Going by its analyst presentation for the third quarter ended December 2008, TCS had a total employee count of 1,30,343.