IT Worker’s Lawsuit Accuses Tata of Discrimination

An IT worker is accusing Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) of discriminating against American workers and favoring “South Asians” in hiring and promotion. It’s backing up its complaint, in part, with numbers.

The lawsuit, filed this week in federal court in San Francisco, claims that 95% of the 14,000 people Tata employs in the U.S. are South Asian or mostly Indian. It says this practice has created a “grossly disproportionate workforce.”

India-based Tata achieves its “discriminatory goals” in at least three ways, the lawsuit alleges. First, the company hires large numbers of H-1B workers. Over from 2011 to 2013, Tata sponsored nearly 21,000 new H-1B visas, all primarily Indian workers, according to the lawsuit’s count. Second, when Tata hires locally, “such persons are still disproportionately South Asian,” and, third, for the “relatively few non-South Asians workers that Tata hires,” it disfavors them in placement, promotion and termination decisions.

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TCS, in response, said that it “is confident that Mr. Heldt’s allegations are baseless, and plans to vigorously defend itself against his claims,” said Benjamin Trounson, a company spokesman, in a statement.

“TCS is an equal opportunity employer, and as such, bases its employment decisions–including recruiting, hiring, promotions, retention, and discipline–on legitimate non-discriminatory business reasons without regards to race, national origin,” and other protected characteristics, said Trounson.

In regard to its U.S. hiring, Trounson said last year alone it recruited more than 2,600 U.S. hires, “many of whom are working on technologies and systems that support critical client needs and help to drive America’s innovation economy.”

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