Tata Consultancy Enforces Return To Office Mandate For All Us Staff, Effectiveimmediately

Exclusive Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has announced an instant five-day return-to-work mandate for US workers, and warns that staff will be monitored and called out if they don’t comply.

A Reg reader who works at the Indian outsourcing biz got in contact after receiving an email from HR saying that everyone will be required to come into work “to enrich our workplace experience, effective immediately.” The only exceptions are those based at client facilities or who have previously agreed upon work-from-home conditions. The outfit had more than 45,000 workers placed at companies in the US in 2023, according to a press release.

“We can confirm that as a part of our ongoing plan to return to office globally, our US operations have also resumed full week working from the office, like many other regions,” TCS told us. “Our associates located at client sites continue to follow the guidance of respective clients regarding work location.”

The employee, who asked to remain anonymous, also told us the rumor mill is working overtime that serious job cuts are in the offing at TCS’ North American offices, with a figure of 30 percent mentioned internally. TCS told us. “While we don’t comment on rumors and speculation, we can confirm we have not announced any layoffs in the US.”

TCS proclaims itself as one of the Big Four IT outsourcing companies, behind IBM, HP, and Accenture. The Indian megacorp makes extensive use of foreign workers recruited to the US under the H-1B scheme, which was originally designed to allow skilled workers into America but has now grown to encompass everything from IT admins to those with the highest skills.

But under President Trump, those practices are changing. During his first term in office, very little changed with the program, but in the last few months, a crackdown has begun, and the government is both rethinking the H-1B visa system and claiming a crackdown on fraud has cut work visa applications by 25 percent.

Such moves will hit outsourcing companies hard. While the law states that H-1B workers should be paid an equivalent salary to American workers to avoid undercutting wages, they are also vulnerable to abuse like being asked to work extra hours, as the alternative is losing their sponsorship.

TCS has been in the news of late for allegedly issuing hollow offers to new hires in India. Indian IT workers’ union the Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES) has submitted a formal complaint to its government over TCS allegedly offering positions to workers, but then enforcing a “Bench Policy,” whereby they are encouraged to apply for particular jobs with no guarantee of getting a contract.

“NITES has received credible reports that many employees are being asked to resign if they fail to find a project within thirty-five days of being on the bench,” it said.

“Employees are being pressurized to take up roles outside their domain or core expertise, and if they refuse, they are told their employment will be terminated. In several shocking cases, Java developers have been forced into .NET roles, and employees have been asked to take on work they were neither trained nor hired for, only to be penalized if performance suffers,” the complaint states. Some workers even claim to have been offered roles, have left their jobs, and then been left in the lurch.

TCS denies those claims. “We can confirm that, as always, TCS is committed to honour all offers we have made, whether it is to freshers or experienced professionals. Everyone who has received an offer from TCS will be onboarded,” a spokesperson told us.

“The joining dates are decided as per business demand and in some cases, they do get adjusted to meet our business needs. We remain in continuous touch with all candidates in these cases and look forward to them joining our company soon.” ®

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