Tata Technologies Fires 800+ Employees After LWP For 8 Months; Legal Complaint Filed By NITES

We have received confirmed reports that Tata Technologies, an IT company under Tata Group has suddenly fired 800+ employees.

Although the company has refuted this claim, they have confirmed that some employees have been asked to leave.

NITES, a prominent nonprofit organization dedicated to the welfare of IT employees, has filed a legal complaint against Tata Technologies over this sudden firing of employees.

Here are more details..

Tata Technologies Fires 800+ Employees

We have received confirmed news with evidence, that Tata Technologies has initiated a mass layoff program, and have sent termination letters to employees.

Around 800-1000 employees may have been impacted.

Both Financial Express and Business Standard have pegged the number of employees to be fired close to 800-1000.

The Nascent Information Technology Senate (NITES) has filed a legal complaint with the Labor Commissioner office on these sudden terminations.

The complaint was filed by Harpreet Singh Saluja, President of NITES. It stated, “We have received complaints from employees of Tata Technologies, Hinjewadi, Pune regarding illegal termination of employment to maintain profitability of business under Covid-19 Pandemic.”

Tata Technologies have denied that such a large number of employees have been fired, but have confirmed that due to less projects, some employees have been asked to leave.

A company spokesperson said, “We were successful in redeploying nearly 18% of this talent pool in projects that came through the year since then. However, following the passage of significant time, we are culminating our relationship with the remaining set of these employees while adhering to all statutory norms.”

Why Legal Complaint?

Now, the legal complaint has been filed because of the nature in which 800-1000 employees have been suddenly fired.

Since June last year, Tata Technologies had put these employees on leave without pay or technically called furlough. They were not provided with any salary, but were offered medical assistance and insurance only.

This, as per NITES, is legally wrong.

Harpreet Singh Saluja said that the Tata Technologies employees were “illegally terminated under the pretext of maintaining the profitability of the business during the pandemic.”

He further said, “IT firms such as Tata Technologies fall under the purview of The Industrial Disputes Act and the Shops and Establishments Act, where there is no concept of furlough, making it illegal,”

Harpreet said that all these terminations are violating “Maharashtra state Government’s directions, rules and regulations issued on 31st March 2020 and other statutory labour laws,”

He expects Labor Commissioner and Maharashtra Govt to immediately resolve this issue and protect the future of 800+ Tata Technologies employees.

Tata Technologies spokesperson has admitted that these employees were on leave without pay, as he said,  “Based on our discussions with a section of our employees, who were already on the bench, they had opted to proceed on paid leave followed by unpaid leave for a period of time. However, they continued to be on the rolls of the Company and were also covered under the Company’s health insurance policy along with their immediate family members during this phase,”

We will keep you updated, as more details come in.