HC restrains TCS from sacking mid-level employee
14 Jan 2015
The Madras High Court today restrained software major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) from retrenching an analyst, Sasirekha Thangavel Natarajan, who had been issued a termination order by the company.
Rekha, as she is generally known, was issued the termination order on 22 December last year. She was told that she would be relieved from her duties on 21 January 2015.
She moved the high court contending that her retrenchment move was illegal and in gross violation of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.
Admitting her petition, Justice M Duraiswamy granted an interim injunction restraining the company from retrenching her.
In her petition, Rekha said she joined TCS in Chennai in March 2011 as an infotech analyst. She is a "workman" within the meaning of Section 2 (s) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, as her main duties and responsibilities are technical and clerical in nature.
Her job involves receiving and collating information about software / application to be developed, analysing requirements and designing and developing appropriate software or application based on client company's needs.
She submitted that as per news reports, the company had decided to terminate the services of 25,000 workers who were assistant consultants or above and to recruit 55,000 new persons, predominantly inexperienced 'freshers', based on campus interviews, to cut costs.
She was one among those to be terminated. The decision to terminate the services of experienced workers was unfair and it overlooked their sincerity and performance. There was no valid reason for the company to terminate experienced workers, replacing them with freshers, she pleaded.
Maintaining that she was honest, sincere and a dedicated worker and that her performance had always been very good, she said she had been given the rating "C" thrice during her service in TCS.
According to Section 25 of the Industrial Disputes Act, the principle is "last come first go". TCS has not published any seniority list as required under the rules of the Act.
TCS does not propose to pay 15 days of wages for every completed year of service as compensation, which too is mandatory under the act, she submitted.
