TCS employees staged a walkout at the company's premises in Espoo and Salo. About 100 workers in Espoo and 60 in Salo participated in the work stoppage.
There has been no word on how long the industrial action will last.
On Tuesday TCS announced that it was launching co-determination talks aimed at reducing its payroll in Finland by 290 jobs. The company currently employs 500 in Finland.
Earlier this year the Finnish phone maker outsourced more than 700 IT positions to the Indian IT services companies HCL and Tata Consulting.
Praises Monday, pink slips Tuesday
Employees say that TCS has shown a heavy hand in dealing with the planned job cuts. They say that on Monday they were praised for their work. On Tuesday, however an email announced the planned retrenchment talks.
“This isn’t the way we do things in Finland,” said TCS employee shop steward Anne Jääskeläinen.
The decision to downsize came as a shock to employees. Jääskeläinen said that the news has been particularly hard for employees who have relocated to Finland for work.
Juha-Matti Heikkinen, shop steward at the company’s Salo facility, said that the speed and scope of the severance talks also took him by surprise. TCS has about 140 workers on its payroll in Salo.
“The majority if not everyone who came to the office feel that it’s impossible to get any work done after yesterday’s announcement. Feelings vary from disbelief to the sentiment of being in some kind of absurd comedy all the way up to full blown rage,” Heikkinen explained.
“This is a spontaneous reaction saying that people can’t be treated this way,” he said of the walkout.
Heikkinen pointed out that Nokia never disclosed retrenchment plans via email. The company’s email announcement about its downsizing plans came just six weeks after some began their careers with the company.
