Ex-TCS employee wins case after 150 court visits in 7 years! Gets back job, full salary

Thirumalai Selvan has won his seven-year long legal battle against TCS.

New Delhi: Thirumalai Selvan, a tech worker from Chennai who was laid off in 2015 by the Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), has won his seven-year long legal battle. A city court recently ordered in 48-year-old Selvan's favour, asking IT giant to reinstate him and pay him his whole salary. The court has also directed the company to provide him with all the additional benefits from the day of his termination to the date of he gets reinstated in the firm again. 

At TCS, Selvan worked for more than eight years. He was working at a managerial position before before he was fired by the company, who told him that his performance was not up to its expectations.

In its argument, TCS had pointed out that Selvan was working in a managerial cadre and isn’t eligible to come under the category of ‘workman’. However, C Kumarappan, presiding officer, Principal Labour Court, reportedly said that the reason for not mentioning the petitioner’s other duties is nothing but a subterfuge, to camouflage his principal nature of duty. 

According to DT Next newspaper, the Chennai court also noted that he employee’s primary role was that of a skilled worker. Selvan is a mechanical engineer by profession, and worked in his core sector for four years prior to entering the software domain in 2001.

Selvan reportedly said that he had travelled to the court more than 150 in the last seven years. He got the support from the Forum for IT Employees (FITE) in his court battle against the company. 

Tough Times 

After Selvan was laid off by TCS in 2015, he reportedly had no other option but to works as a freelance consultant. In addition to freelance software projectes, he took up other roles such as real estate broker to earn a living. His monthly salary dipped to as low as Rs 10,000, according to the report. 

Moreover, he had received the job at TCS as an assistant systems engineer after pursuing a course that reportedly costed him about Rs 1 lakh.