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Tata Consultancy Services Faces Tribunal Over Redundancy Allegations
A UK branch of the Indian conglomerate Tata is facing scrutiny at an employment tribunal amid allegations it deliberately engineered a redundancy program that unfairly targeted older, non-Indian employees. The claim centers around accusations of age and nationality discrimination during a company restructuring initiated in mid-2023 by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a Mumbai-based IT giant valued at nearly £110 billion on the Bombay Stock Exchange.
Discrimination Claims Echo US Case
The ongoing tribunal case mirrors similar accusations in the United States, where over 22 former employees have claimed TCS terminated their employment with minimal notice. These US claimants further allege they were replaced by Indian workers brought in on H1-B visas, a scheme designed for companies to employ foreign workers in specialist occupations.
TCS Denies Wrongdoing
TCS, a subsidiary of the wider Tata Group which also encompasses brands like Tetley Tea and Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), refutes all claims of discriminatory practices in both the UK and US cases.
Lead Claimant Details “Unfair” Redundancy Process
Steve Beer, the primary claimant in the London tribunal, testified that his redundancy from TCS, an IT outsourcing firm with clients including Virgin Atlantic, Maersk, and Aviva, was carried out in a “discriminatory and unjust manner.”
Beer, a former partner who joined TCS in February 2019, contends that the company specifically “targeted a demographic of older, predominantly non-Indian employees” for redundancy within its Consulting Services and Integration (CS&I) division.
Accusations of “Deliberately Orchestrated” Process
According to Beer’s testimony, TCS allegedly “deliberately orchestrated” the redundancy selection process to ensure these specific employees were chosen for termination, while younger, Indian employees were protected.
He argued this was achieved through a pre-determined “tick-box” style consultancy exercise where the outcome was already decided.
“Bait-and-Switch” Client Strategy Alleged
Beer further claimed TCS employed a “bait-and-switch” tactic to attract global clients. This involved initially including “local” staff in sales proposals, only to replace them with Indian staff once contracts were secured.
The rationale, Beer asserted, was that non-Indian staff within divisions like CS&I were perceived internally as “more expensive and less culturally ‘malleable and compliant’.”
Profit Margins and Performance Metrics
Beer explained that retaining these employees could potentially reduce TCS’s profit margins and negatively impact performance metrics that influenced bonus payouts.
He suggested TCS sometimes underestimated projected costs to win contracts, further increasing the likelihood of more experienced, but higher-cost, CS&I staff being replaced on those projects.
“Non-Billable” Projects as Redundancy Trigger
This practice, Beer stated, resulted in experienced staff being removed from client-billable projects. Lack of assignment to billable projects then became a key factor in determining redundancy selection.
Beer referenced an August 2023 email from a human resources director, which he believes indicated that employees not assigned to “billable” projects were at risk of redundancy.
TCS Disputes All Allegations
In court submissions, TCS has formally denied all of Beer’s accusations and maintains its redundancy processes were fair and non-discriminatory.
Two additional claimants alleging similar discrimination based on age and nationality are yet to present their evidence to the employment tribunal.