An Indian software engineer who resides in the United States filed a lawsuit against US-based Siri Software Solutions LLC alleging forced labour and wage theft.
The litigation was brought about by plaintiff Amrutesh Vallabhaneni, against the defendants Siri Software Solutions and Pavan Tata, Breitbart reported.
Vallabhaneni said that the company promised him a H-1B Visa and a Green Card if he agreed to come work for them.
But this arrangement quickly took a malicious turn, when he stated that his pay was withheld. He further said he was threatened with stalling of the application for his Visa and Green Card when he attempted to leave the organisation due to this.
“For the Indian workers, this is a Squid Game where the ultimate goal is to stay in America,” Jay Palmer, a labour trafficking expert who aided in the preparation of Vallabhaneni’s lawsuit, said to Breitbart News.
“It’s a very, very exploitative culture. Indian chief executive officers import home-country caste-discrimination politics into US workplaces,” he added.
Having arrived in the US in 2015 using a F-1 student visa, Vallabhaneni took loans to fund his education. He then joined E-Content, a company in New Jersey before being employed by Siri Software Solutions.
The lawsuit said that the company violated several US labour laws and did not pay Vallabhaneni the prevailing wage as per federal law. He was instead forced to cover his own salary for six months, with threats to suspend the Visa application process if he did not comply.
"Despite these blatant violations, Vallabhaneni was not free to leave SiriSoft because SiriSoft threatened to withdraw his H-1B if he did not comply with their unlawful requests," the law suit said.
According to Vallabhaneni, these irregular and inadequate financial compensations made him unable to make rent payments or access healthcare.
The lack of health insurance rendered him and his wife unable to receive treatment, which he especially required when he suffered a serious leg injury.
The lawsuit aims to claim full compensation, damages, and attorney’s fees.
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