TCS on Thursday categorically denied reports of possible job losses in view of the company closing down its Lucknow development centre.
“The consolidation into large centres is a theme that is across TCS. Even in Chennai we have consolidated into larger and larger centres. Lucknow shift to Noida is a part of that. We have large operations in Noida and we are consolidating into that. It is about ability to train, ability to re-skill, greater opportunity for people to move around,” Rajesh Gopinath, CEO and Managing Director, said while emphasising that all employees at TCS’ Lucknow operations will be shifted to Noida.
To continue hiringGopinath said the company will continue to hire in Uttar Pradesh and the move is just a part of the company’s overall consolidation efforts.
“...from a training and growth perspective and client perspective, it is much more tenable for our associates to work in larger centres. Our larger development centres like the state-of-art facility in Chennai or in Pune are typically 20,000-25,000 people centres that gives the scale for training, for experimentation, for innovation,’ Gopinath said.
He pointed out that such consolidation is not restricted to just Uttar Pradesh but also in Maharashtra where TCS could be shutting down about 20-odd centres to consolidate into one.
“We have been steadily consolidating. In Mumbai also, because of legacy issues we were distributed across more than 20 locations. We are now consolidating into Thane where we are putting up a new facility that’ll have about 25,000 people. So, we are consolidating into Thane,” Gopinath said. However, the company said that no decision has been taken over severance packages for employees who will be unwilling to move to Noida.
The total employee strength at the end of Q1 stood at 385,809 on consolidated basis with gross addition of 11,202 and net addition of (1,414 employees) during the quarter.
TCS said that it will continue to hire both in India and the US although the number of hires this year will be less than last year’s.