‘Substantial anti-American sentiment’, says lawsuit.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: A former employee is accusing Mumbai-based Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. of discriminating against “individuals who are not South Asian” and has consequently launched a lawsuit against the multinational outsourcing giant.
Steven Heldt alleges in a civil complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco that he experienced “substantial anti-American sentiment” and was fired by Tata Consultancy after working at several of the company’s U.S. offices for 20 months because he was a Caucasian American, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The lawsuit also claims that 95 percent of the 14,000 people Tata employs in the U.S. are South Asian or mostly Indian. It says the practice has created a “grossly disproportionate workforce,” according to Computerworld.
“TCS is confident that Mr. Heldt’s allegations are baseless, and plans to vigorously defend itself against his claims,” said company spokesman Benjamin Trounson 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, he continued.
In 2013, the last time Tata Consultancy reported data on its employee demographics, more than 90 percent of Tata Consultancy’s 300,000-plus employees were Indian, per data gleaned by the Wall Street Journal. The majority of its U.S.-based workers are Indians on temporary work visas.
The litigation against Tata Consultancy arrives as a bipartisan group of 10 U.S. Senators are seeking an investigation by federal authorities into the displacement of U.S. information technology workers by companies that utilize H-1B visas.
Heldt’s lawsuit explicitly accuses Tata of achieving “its discriminatory goals” by hiring large numbers of H-1B workers — allegedly as many as 21,000 between 2011 and 2013, all of whom were primarily Indian.
It also claims that when Tata hires locally “such persons are still disproportionately South Asian,” while the “relatively few non-South Asian workers that Tata hires” are disfavored in placement, promotion, and termination decisions.
4 Comments
I am a software engineer with over 7 yrs experience i have a masters degree in computer science, i am in the market looking for a change of job and had applied to a company i was surprised when the recruiter asked me to do a prometric and personality test, when i reminded the recruiter that i had experience her reply was that the director was very insistent of every candidate taking the test. my instant notion was that the director could be an Indian and indeed searching about the company on linkedin did confirm my instincts.
i know from my friends in univ that these tests are administered to just out college students in India but for this company to ask me to do this when i had the relevant experience in the relevant field was discriminating. I am sure this will be the trend of the future job seekers if more and more Indians become managers. i wish there was some law that prevented such assessment tests which are unrelated to the job, these tests do not measure my programming skills. in my work experience i have come across people who just out passion for programming are considered the best in the industry they dont have college degree or any masters to prove their skillset. and IT is such an industry all you need is passion for your job you dont need a roster of degrees. Steve jobs out of his passion for his job started a company from his garage, so did amazon and many other such big tech giants. Imagine if these people were to be assessed by these prometric tests.
and above all the results of these assessment tests are not even communicated to the candidate, so how does the candidate know how they performed. From my research online i read that assessment test are a billion dollar industry, im sure for all of these they may need many programmers from south east Asia…and since many south east Asians are already trained in acing these tests only they will be able to crack these tests. while they ace the exams and get hired we Americans will have to watch our jobs pass on to some one else.
our experience and skills set will be lost in dust just because some director sitting on a cozy recliner judges experienced professionals by ability to give some test that is only meant for out of college grads and if this is not discrimination in a hidden form i dont know what else could you name it.
if i am right these Asians discriminate their own fellow country men based on caste, creed and religion and i guess when they boarded the plane they packed their discriminating nature also along with their luggage.
These companies have to get smart and have the employees sign an arbitration clause.Most of these litigants are losers who have no skills and/or lazy bums, who can’t get a job that is in line with their skills and take advantage of the reverse discrimination loophole with stupid juries, who invariably side with these losers, since most of the juries identify with these losers. If they can hit jackpot in millions, they have no incentive to work in the first place. Arbitration will put end to this fake discrimination cases.
I am not shilling for Tata or any company. I don’t care a hoot if Tata or Bota have to pay the awards to the plaintiffs. I am shilling for American Work Ethic. If an employee takes a job with an honest goal to better himself and prosper with a A-company, instead of a a premeditated and carefully documented fake discrimination scenario to enrich himself at the cost of the company and a sympathetic jury, he is a loser in my books.
To give an example, an Indian Anchor woman’s contract was not renewed. She would have won an award in millions, if she had played the race card to the jury but she had signed an arbitration clause. Yes, the arbitration clause is stacked against an employee or a litigant but at the same token, let us face the facts- a typical American jury is stacked against an Indian company that is supposedly practicing reverse discrimination and portrayed in the media and senate hearings as a business terrorist !
The consul (mostly big law firms who bill 600$ an hour) for these companies are against the arbitration because they lose billing hours and the fortune they can amass by billing millions to the companies like Tata or Bota.
Are you kidding? All arbitration does is tilt the table against individuals and in favor of Goliaths like Tata. People don’t bring cases like this for the money. The risks are way too high and the chance of winning way too low. People bring cases like this because they truly have been wronged.
Tata brings the caste system with them wherever they operate, and non-Indians are treated worse than untouchables. Based on your comment, I have to assume that you’re shilling for Tata.
Really? Did you look at his credentials? He has a bachelors from Carolina, and a masters degree! Not to mention his many certifications. I think he is far from a looser! Your comment shows a lack of true thought over the issue. It easy to attack the character of the person rather than looking at the issues at hand