An online forum formed in Chennai — ‘We are against TCS layoff’ — has posted on social networks that the country’s largest software exporter is planning to sack “25,000 non-performers by the end of February 2015”.

The appraisal system of the company is “non-transparent”, the forum claimed.

A TCS spokesperson, however, refuted the number quoted by the forum.

“This is nothing out of the ordinary or a special situation for us to comment about,” said the spokesperson, who declined to specify the number of employees to be laid off.

As a performance-driven company, workforce optimisation is a continuous process. This happens throughout the year taking into account employee performance, business needs and people aspirations.

Attrition

This leads to some amount of involuntary attrition in the company, he said.

“We continue to be leading recruiters of IT talent across the world, not only in India. In this fiscal year, we have a total hiring target of 55,000 professionals and we are on track to meet it.”

Sources in the IT industry did not give importance to the online forum, saying there are indications of some political party behind it.

When contacted by BusinessLine, a representative of the forum declined to reveal its background.

TCS ended the September quarter with 3.13 lakh employees with an attrition rate of 12.8 per centý.