Tata Consultancy Services

Tata Consultancy Services confirmed plans to cut approximately 12,200 jobs (~2% of its global workforce) during 2026, with managers instructed to identify the bottom 5% of staff as 'Band-D' underperformers - a process Indian IT-services labor advocates describe as a 'PIP-as-layoff playbook' designed to engineer voluntary exits at scale. The cuts disproportionately affect mid-career engineers in India and have triggered organizing among Indian IT services workers about their rights, MSA contracts, and background verification practices.

Beginning late 2023, dozens of former American TCS employees filed EEOC complaints alleging systematic discrimination based on race, age, and national origin. Complainants - largely non-South Asian professionals over 40 - say TCS targeted them for layoffs while sparing Indian colleagues including H-1B visa workers. Key evidence: TCS global HR head Milind Lakkad told Indian news agency TCS wanted to reduce American employee percentage from 70% to 50% to 'offer opportunities to staff in India.' April 2024: US Representative Seth Moulton (D-MA) urged EEOC formal investigation, noting complainants were his constituents and suggested 'broader pattern of discrimination' and 'potential misuse of U.S. work visa programs.' October 2025: Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley and Ranking Member Dick Durbin questioned TCS about hiring 5,505 new H-1B workers in FY2025 while 'hundreds of thousands of American tech employees have been laid off.' Multiple class action lawsuits: Heldt (2015-2018, defense verdict), Katz (2022-2023, partially dismissed), Devorin (2024, pending). Investigation ongoing as of January 2026.

On March 1, 2013, TCS paid $29.75 million settlement after lawsuit filed in 2006 by employees Gopi Vedachalam and Kangana Beri alleged TCS 'unjustly enriched itself by requiring all non-US-citizen employees to endorse and sign over their federal and state tax refund checks to the company and by taking unauthorised deductions from employee's paychecks.' The class action represented 12,000 H-1B visa workers. TCS forced workers to sign over tax refunds they were legally entitled to, and took illegal paycheck deductions. This systematic wage theft targeted vulnerable visa workers who feared retaliation and deportation if they resisted. Settlement represented compensation for thousands of workers systematically exploited through their visa status vulnerability.