Hyderabad: Tata Consultancy Services, long considered a bastion of employee-friendly practices in the Indian IT sector, is under fire after a Pune-based employee staged a sidewalk protest over a salary delay, adding to growing concerns around job insecurity and layoffs.
The protester, identified as Saurabh More, was seen lying outside the TCS Sahyadri Park campus in Pune with his office bag as a pillow. In a handwritten letter addressed to the company, he said he reported back to work on July 29 but had not received his salary, nor was his employee ID reactivated. HR officials allegedly told him on July 30 that they “hoped” his July 31 salary would be processed, but provided no resolution. More has been sleeping outside the office premises since.
TCS’s goodwill hit as layoffs and unpaid wages draw social media outrage
The protest photo went viral, igniting a storm of criticism against TCS, which recently announced plans to cut 2% of its global workforce — around 12,000 employees — citing operational cost pressures and a pivot toward artificial intelligence.
According to FITE (Forum for IT Employees), the incident reflects deeper unrest within India’s IT sector, where top six firms hired just 3,847 people in the April–June quarter – a steep 72% drop from the 13,935 hires in the previous quarter.
TCS joins peers like Microsoft and Intel, which have also announced large-scale job cuts globally. FITE urged affected employees to pursue formal labour complaints alongside public protests, citing Indian labour laws that protect salary and employment rights.