TCS hopes bonus payout will help contain high attrition

The IT giant yesterday announced a one-time bonus worth Rs 2,628 cr to its employees

Country's largest software exporter TCS today said it hopes the Rs 2,628-crore bonus to its lakhs of employees will help contain the high attrition level.

The IT major, however, clarified that the 11,000 employees of its recently merged subsidiary CMC will not be eligible for the payout.

"The bonus does not cover some of the subsidiaries and it is primarily for TCS staff. CMC employees will not be within this," TCS global HR head Ajoy Mukherjee told PTI in an interaction.

He also denied that the rising attrition levels, which he described as "high", had anything to do with announcing the bonus.

"The bonus payout should have a benefit (on reducing attrition), but that is not the intent why we did it," Mukherjee said, adding, the primary aim is to celebrate value creation.

TCS, which employees the largest workforce in the sector and had 3.19 lakh employees as of March-end, has been facing high attrition of late, which touched 14.9 per cent in the March quarter.

Last October, TCS had merged CMC with itself, which it had bought in the early 2000 from the government through a disinvestment, wherein CMC shareholders will get 79 TCS shares of Re 1 face value for every 100 equity shares of Rs 10 each of CMC.

Mukherjee said the payment for employees within the country will be at a gross level, including the basic pay and statutory payments, while for those outside the country, it is a separate one which would also include their bonuses.

The Tata Group company, which contributes over 60 per cent to the group's net income, announced the hefty bonus of Rs 2,628 crore to celebrate 10 years of listing, during which its market capitalisation has grown more than ten times to over Rs 5 trillion - the only company to attain such a feat.