No layoffs, TCS to stay in Lucknow for 2 years; do we hear a sigh of relief?

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) made quite some news last month after it was said that the firm was shutting down its Lucknow office. While about 2,000 employees wondered if they would be rendered jobless, the IT giant has now said that it doesn't plan to lay off employees and is just merging operations, which will be moved to its Noida centre.

The Uttar Pradesh government had earlier urged the IT giant to put its shutdown plans on hold until Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath meets the firm's chief operating officer to discuss the matter. Rajesh Gopinathan, managing director, and his team met the CM on Friday, August 11.

The TCS team gave a presentation to Yogi Adityanath regarding their plans and said that the firm was discontinuing its smaller operations and moving to a larger unit. However, it does not plan to let its employees go, reported Business Standard.

Gopinathan also explained to the CM that TCS was expanding its Noida business, which currently houses about 15,000 people and will soon have about 40,000 employees. Until the Noida facility is ready, TCS will continue to work out of its Lucknow office.

"The TCS officials said until the Noida capacity was enhanced, the Lucknow centre would continue to operate. Once the Noida integrated facility gets ready in another one to two years, the staff would be given the option to relocate," the website quoted additional chief secretary for planning and information technology and electronics Sanjiv Saran as saying.

The employees in Lucknow were reportedly told about TCS' decision to close the office in the city by their team leaders on July 12. It was said that the processes functioning out of the Lucknow office were likely to be shifted to other cities such as Noida and Indore. The employees had written to Adityanath requesting an intervention in the matter.

Some employees had reportedly also written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Information and Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma seeking help.

The employees also organised a candle light protest on July 18 against the firm's plans.

"Lucknow is on way to becoming the next information technology (IT) hub in Uttar Pradesh after Noida but if TCS shifts base to Noida, no company will opt to come to Lucknow as they will be sceptical of investing in the state capital. The exit of TCS will send a wrong signal to other software giants who were planning to set up base in Lucknow," an employee told Hindustan Times on condition of anonymity.

While there was much confusion on why TCS had decided to take this step, the IT giant, which has been operating in the city for about 33 years said in a statement: "The Lucknow centre had less than 1000 employees. It was not a convenient place for client related work. TCS is looking to consolidate its operations in Uttar Pradesh and the current Lucknow workforce will shift its operations to Noida and Varanasi. All employees will be relocated, no one will be fired."

Additionally, sources also told News18 that the company wasn't making profits in the city and it did not make sense in terms of business to carry on with operations at the facility. The rent for the campus at Awadh Park in the Vibhuti Khand area of Gomti Nagar also seems to be an issue as the lease for it expired in May. The company and the builder reportedly couldn't agree on the new lease terms and the contract has now been extended for just another 11 months.