The Maharashtra government has informed the Legislative Council that Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) carried out 376 layoffs at its Pune campuses during the current financial year. The disclosure was made during Question Hour after multiple legislators sought clarity on reports of large-scale retrenchments in the IT sector.
Members of the Council raised concerns over claims suggesting that as many as 30,000 TCS employees had been laid off across cities including Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Mumbai, Nagpur and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. Reportedly, Labour Minister Aakash Fundkar said the figure of 376 was officially shared by TCS and covered two quarters of the ongoing financial year. He added that the company currently employs 45,575 people across its Pune facilities.
However, the government’s statement has been contested by the Forum for IT Employees (FITE), a body representing technology sector workers in the state. The organisation alleged that the actual number of job losses was significantly higher than what has been officially acknowledged. According to FITE, several exits were not reflected in the government’s data.
The forum claimed that many employees were allegedly pressured to resign, a practice it described as “silent layoffs,” which it says are excluded from formal termination figures. The Forum also questioned TCS’ assertion that a large number of employees left voluntarily, arguing that such exits require closer scrutiny. The group has written to the state government seeking a comprehensive probe into both retrenchments and forced resignations.
Further, FITE raised concerns over the lack of support for affected employees, especially in light of the company’s dividend payout in the previous financial year.
Addressing the House, the labour minister stated that the reported layoffs were confined to middle and senior management positions and were not linked to artificial intelligence or automation. The contrasting claims have intensified debate around transparency in reporting job losses within large IT firms, with employee groups urging authorities to examine exits beyond formal layoffs.
