U.S. Lawsuit Alleges TCS Favours Indians, South Asians In Hiring
A former employee has accused TCS of discrimination and violation of U.S. visa norms.
Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. prefers to hire workers of South Asian or Indian descent in the U.S. by seeking more work visas than justified, a new class-action lawsuit has alleged.
The class-action lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey by former TCS employee Shawn Katz and accessed from Bloomberg Law, seeks to represent those who have been harmed by the alleged race and national origin discrimination.
About 70% of TCS’ 40,000 employees in the U.S. are of South Asian origin, most of whom “are non-citizens from India who are in the U.S. on work visas”, according to the lawsuit filed on Dec. 7. TCS instructs internal recruiters and third-party vendors “to seek out and attract Indian candidates”, which causes a disproportionately high number of South Asians and Indians to be hired relative to the available labour market.
To be sure, this isn’t the first time India’s largest software services firm has been accused of racial bias in the U.S. In 2018, a jury in California rejected claims that TCS discriminated against American workers in favour of staffing its U.S. offices with Indians.
“As per policy, we can’t comment on sub judice matters,” TCS said in response to an email seeking comment on the latest lawsuit.
H-1B, L-1 Visas
According to Katz, a naturalised U.S. citizen of Israeli origin, TCS has created an inventory of “visa ready” workers. The company relies heavily on H-1B and L-1 work visas to bring South Asian and Indian workers to the U.S.
The company applies for visas “for more positions than actually exist in the U.S.,” and “also falsifies employee roles listed in its H-1B and L-1A visa applications”, the lawsuit claimed.
TCS “was consistently one of the top three H1-B visa recipients each year,” from 2013 to 2019, and it “was the top recipient of L-1 visas” every year between 2015 and 2019.
TCS also ensures that these visa holders stay for longer in the U.S., by giving them higher performance reviews and promoting them more often than their U.S. peers, the suit said.
U.S. workers are placed on the “bench” between assignments more frequently and remain there for longer periods. That makes it more likely that U.S. workers will “languish on the bench” long enough to be fired, the suit said.
On Monday, shares of Tata Consultancy Services fell 0.25% to Rs 3,284.50 apiece on the BSE, even as the benchmark Sensex ended the day 0.08% lower at 62,130.57 points.
