The Forum for IT Employees (FITE) spearheading the protest “We are against TCS LayOffs’ in the social media besides organising protests on the ground against ‘involuntary attrition’ of IT employees has extended its solidarity to the employees of the TCS campus at Infopark, who have been handed out pink slips.

An office bearer of FITE, formed by a Chennai-based group, who was at Infopark campus on Friday, met employees who had been served a month’s notice to leave the company. The visit coincided with the appearance of a banner of FITE in front of the TCS campus.

“We have decided to kick start our movement with a demonstration in front of Infopark dotted with placards, banners and flyers,” Bharathi Dasan, a member of FITE who has been given charge of the organisation’s affairs in Kochi, told The Hindu.

“Some affected employees have come forward to take legal recourse in which case FITE will extend all assistance and guidance to take it forward,” Mr. Dasan said. He admitted that there was reluctance among at least a section of the affected employees fearing a backlash. The meeting held on Friday was the first of many such.

With many employees apprehensive of coming out in the open across the country, FITE has decided to focus on its e-petition campaign on its Facebook page. “We plan to approach the Union Labour Ministry, Prime Minister’s Office and the International Labour Organisation once e-petitions reach a certain number within the next couple of weeks,” Mr. Dasan said.

However, a TCS spokesperson told The Hindu that canards were being spread about the company by publishing speculative figures even as she pegged job cuts at just over 3,000 covering all its centres across the globe. “Business associates hired for specific projects and those found to be underperforming alone are being asked to leave.

In fact, the 25,000-35,000 job cuts being speculated accounts for 10 per cent of our workforce. Why would we do that when we are on track to hire 55,000 new hands, including 35,000 from campuses,” she said.

The spokesperson said that a set of disgruntled former IT employees who had to leave various IT companies at different periods were behind the campaign.