TCS takes action amid recruitment scandal

MUMBAI, INDIA — IT giant Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) terminated six employees and banned six staffing firms due to involvement in a significant recruitment bribery scam.
Tata Sons Chairperson N Chandrasekaran announced these actions at the company’s annual general meeting.
TCS works with around 1,000 staffing firms across 55 countries, with business associates accounting for about two to three percent of the total workforce.
The sacked employees allegedly demonstrated preferential treatment towards certain firms, though the exact nature of these favors remains undisclosed.
Investigations into the unethical conduct of these employees, who reportedly received undisclosed favors from staffing firms for hiring contractual workers, are still underway.
Chandrasekaran said TCS plans to review its business associate supplier management process and strengthen the selection process to prevent the repeat of such incidents in the future.
Although some reports estimated the scam to be worth ₹100 crores (US$12.2 million), the company has not confirmed this. This incident underscores TCS’s commitment to ethical conduct and fairness in its recruitment practices.
The complaints about these irregularities in appointing contractual workers emerged from the United States (U.S.) and India in late February and early March. They were made public by a whistleblower complaint last week.