TCS to shut down Lucknow operations leaving 2,000 IT employees in limbo

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is set to shut down its operations in Lucknow and employees at the facility were reportedly told about it by their team leaders on Wednesday, July 12. The move will leave about 2,000 IT employees – 50 percent of them women -- in limbo.

The processes functioning out of the Lucknow office are likely to be shifted to other cities such as Noida and Indore. The employees of the Lucknow office, whose future now seems uncertain, have written to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath requesting an intervention in the matter, reported Navbharat Times.

Additionally, some employees are also said to have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Information and Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma.

Meanwhile, sources told News18 that the company wasn't making profits and hence it did not make sense in terms of business to carry on with operations at the facility. Also, the IT giant is said to be paying a high rent for the place -- Awadh Park in the Vibhuti Khand area of Gomti Nagar -- the lease of which expired in May 2017. 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.

After news of TCS shutting down its Lucknow office broke, the IT giant, which has been operating in the city for 33 years now, spoke about it in an official statement as said: "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."

The shutdown comes at a time when the IT industry is already reeling under the mass layoffs reportedly as a result of the global economic slowdown and automation.