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Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), has been sued by three United States citizens claiming discrimination based on race and national origin, and are seeking exemplary and punitive damages, in the latest case to afflict India's largest Information Technology (IT) outsourcing company.
The complaint has been filed in the District Court of New Jersey earlier this month, by Darryl Stacy, Donald Stephen Bradley, and Hesham Hafez.
TCS opts to bring in employees on visas though when there are trained U.S. citizens and further discriminates when it hires locally by preferring Indians and South Asians, according to the alleged complaint.
"TCS' president for North America Surya Kant and vice president and head of human resources Narasimhan Srinivasan devised and implemented a nationwide 'leadership directive' to utilize TCS's visa-ready South Asian employees (also known as 'expats') to the 'maximum extent' when filling U.S. positions," stated the complaint.
Among three, who filed a complaint, Stacy and Bradley worked for Southern California Edison, the primary electricity supply company, while Hafez worked at Royal Bank of Scotland in Connecticut.
The 16-page filing has been accessed by EThas. The plaintiffs are seeking a jury trial and their "prayer for relief" comprises compensatory damages likewise exemplary and punitive damages.
They are represented by Kotchen &Low, the company that is as well representing some other employees of Southern California Edison in a class-action case against TCS related to bias in employing. That lawsuit is being heard in the Northern District of California.
A TCS spokesperson said the company "believes that the allegations by the plaintiffs are baseless, and is confident that it will successfully defend itself".
"Indeed, the federal court in California previously rejected a class-action for hiring discrimination by the same law firm concerning TCS' hiring practices, citing the same issues," the spokesperson told Economic Times in an email.
It further said TCS is an equal opportunity employer, and as such, bases its employment decisions - including hiring, recruiting, retention, promotions, and discipline - on legitimate non-discriminatory business reasons.
Indian IT companies, including TCS, are going through tremendous pressure over hiring locally in the U.S. HCL technologies and Infosys in the U.S. are facing lawsuits over discrimination of U.S. citizens by the aforesaid law firm.
Related content: Infosys to Hire 1,000 American Techies in Arizona
Poorvi Chothani, the managing partner at immigration law firm Law Quest International, said such cases can prove tricky for the Indian firms.
"If the case were to reach a jury trial, the facts and evidence would be presented to a judge and jury. The jury would comprise of members of the public, 'peers' of the plaintiffs. In such cases, juries can be very sympathetic toward employees, often because their complaint resonates with the ‘peers’ in some way," she told Economic Times.
In numerous cases, companies settle such cases by paying plaintiffs huge amounts of money, Chothani said.
-Sowmya Sangam
