TCS employee to be reinstated, given 50% back wages

A Chennai labour court has ruled in favour of an IT professional, who had been working with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) for over two decades. The employee had apparently been terminated from employment in 2017 when she had fallen ill. The labour court has now ordered the Company to reinstate her and pay her 50 per cent back wages too.

The employee in question had taken ill in May 2017, and had informed TCS about the same. She had even submitted relevant medical records to the HR at TCS informing them that she could not come to work. Yet, she was dismissed a month later. While her argument was that she was terminated despite submitting proof of her poor health condition, the Company maintained that she was dismissed because she could not be assigned to any project as she lacked the relevant skills and had failed to upgrade her skills or knowledge. The Company maintains that she had not been assigned to any project since March 2015 up until the day she was terminated in 2017. That means, she had not been actively working on any project for over 700 days. The Company naturally argued that for about two years the employee had been drawing her salary and benefits without having worked at all.

However, the court ruled in favour of the employee saying that TCS has no proof that the employee had not upgraded her skills or knowledge and therefore, would have to reinstate her. Also, she had been dismissed in violation of the Industrial Disputes Act.