India’s Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. will have to defend itself at a U.S. trial over claims that it’s biased against American workers. A federal judge in Oakland, California, has rejected a request from the information technology outsourcing giant to dismiss a 2015 lawsuit accusing it of violating anti-discrimination laws by favoring South Asians.
In a further setback for the company, the judge also expanded the case into a class action on behalf of American workers who lost their jobs at TCS offices in the U.S. because they hadn’t been assigned to any of its clients.
“TCS will vigorously defend its position and expects positive outcome. There are no discriminatory practices in any part of the company and TCSBSE 0.30 % is confident that it will be able to defend its position at the Trial,” TCS said in a statement.
TCS was sued back in 2015 by a white, American IT worker named Brian Buchanan, who accused them of overwhelming favoritism toward Indian American workers, adding that he experienced “substantial anti-American sentiment” in his 20 months at TCS, and was ultimately terminated.
TCS has argued that Buchanan’s experience does not prove he was a victim of bias as “he has ‘no idea’ whether the application process was discriminatory because he did not attend any of the town hall meetings he was invited to during the Edison transition to learn about open positions with TCS and how to apply for them—and he did not apply for a specific job, the company said in a court filing.”
Another IT firm, Infosys also faced a similar lawsuit in Milwaukee four years ago and both the IT firms have come under pressure from President Donald Trump’s desire to hire more American locals and he is also wanting to decrease the amount of H-1B visa applications in a year.
