Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) one of India’s largest IT multinational corporations is facing a backlash for its questionable pay practices. More precisely it is about the Quarterly Performance Bonus (QPB) system. The backlash grew on June 15 when Saubhik Bhattacharya General Secretary of the All India IT and ITES Employees Union (AIITEU) accused the company in a public forum of exploiting its workers. In particular he slammed the company for what he described as “strategic exploitation.” According to him the irregular payout of performance bonuses is affecting the financial well-being of thousands of employees despite being a part of their official Cost to Company (CTC).

Several employees of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) have reached out to AIITEU expressing great discontent over the strategic exploitation by TCS using the facade of Quarterly Performance Bonus (QPB)... the statement read as reported by EdexLive.

Saubhik Bhattacharya of the All India IT and ITES Employees Union (AIITEU) states that TCSs salary structure has both fixed and variable components with the variable component including monthly performance pay and a Quarterly Performance Bonus (QPB). Although the QPB is intended for rewarding performance the AIITEU asserts that it is often slashed or withheld in TCSs discretion. Union-sponsored surveys show that many mid-level employees (Assistant Consultants Associate Consultants and C4 Consultants) receive only 40%-75% of their qualified QPB payments over the last two years.

On average these QPB deductions have reduced employees’ annual Cost to Company (CTC) by 30 % leaving them with much less than originally promised. The union also pointed out that QPB payouts are now explicitly tied to office work in person. Since the COVID transition TCS has been pushing employees to give up their WFH arrangements. Only employees who maintain an 85% attendance record in the office will qualify to earn their full QPB making attendance a precondition of earning performance-linked incentives.