Cognizant Layoffs 2020: Union Fights Technology Consulting Job Cuts -

Employee unions in India are fighting alleged layoffs at Cognizant, the massive IT consulting firm, according to The New Indian Express.

The report states:

State IT employee unions in Karnataka and Chennai have alleged that Cognizant is executing mass layoffs after benching nearly 18,000 employees across India.

Cognizant has allegedly asked the employees to resign as they are unable to secure projects.

Karnataka State IT employee Union (KITU) is calling all Cognizant employees to not tender their resignations under management pressure.

KITU plans to register a complaint with the state labor department.

ChannelE2E has reached out to Cognizant for comment. The New Indian Express's article did not contain a comment from the IT consulting company; the newspaper said it reached out to Cognizant but did not receive a a reply at deadline.

Targeted IT Consulting Layoffs, Staff Cuts Spread Worldwide

The alleged Cognizant layoffs reinforce a recent job cut trend across the IT consulting and IT services sector. Amid the coronavirus pandemic and associated economic fallout, businesses such as Accenture, Deloitte, KPMG and PwC have confirmed layoffs.

Cognizant had the added challenge of a recent ransomware attack that cost the IT consulting firm millions of dollars in lost revenues and corrective expenses.

Still, Cognizant and many rivals making job cuts remain global IT consulting giants -- with diversified revenue streams across cloud, big data, analytics, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and software development services.