The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is investigating dozens of American workers’ allegations that India’s biggest IT outsourcer, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., discriminated against them based on their race, age and national origin.
The former employees are largely professionals from non-South Asian ethnic backgrounds over the age of 40, who say the company targeted them for layoffs but spared Indian colleagues, some of whom were working on H-1B skilled worker visas. They began filing complaints against TCS in late 2023.
“Allegations that TCS engages in unlawful discrimination are meritless and misleading,” a TCS spokesperson said. “TCS has a strong track record of being an equal opportunity employer in the U.S., embracing the highest levels of integrity and values in our operations.”
An EEOC spokesperson, citing federal law, said the agency cannot comment on investigations. Complaints, or charges, made to the EEOC are confidential under federal law.
Bloomberg News reviewed more than two dozen of the complaints, which have not been made public. Emails and interviews with people familiar with the investigation show it began during President Biden’s administration and has continued under President Trump.
In the UK, three former TCS workers have made similar claims to an employment tribunal, saying the company in 2023 discriminated against them based on their age and nationality as part of a redundancy program, The Guardian reported this month. TCS denied the allegations in a response submitted to the tribunal.
In an April 2024 letter that has not been previously reported, US Representative Seth Moulton, a Massachusetts Democrat, wrote to the EEOC’s commissioners and its then-chair, Charlotte Burrows. Moulton asked the agency to consider opening an investigation into TCS, noting that residents of his state were among more than two dozen people who had submitted complaints to the agency.
TCS’s actions “may have constituted a pattern-or-practice of discrimination impacting Americans that falls within the EEOC’s jurisdiction,” he wrote. “Additionally, it may also have been a potential misuse of US work visa programs designed to fill US labor shortfalls.”
The EEOC is tasked with enforcing laws prohibiting discrimination in the workplace. In 2020, its investigation of another of the world’s biggest outsourcing firms, Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp., found that the company discriminated against non-Indian workers in its US operation. A jury in a federal class-action lawsuit found in October that Cognizant intentionally discriminated against more than 2,000 non-Indian employees between 2013 and 2022, echoing the EEOC findings. Cognizant said it provides equal employment opportunities for all employees and does not tolerate discrimination. It has said it plans to appeal the verdict and disagrees with the EEOC finding.
The allegations against TCS underscore longstanding criticisms of outsourcing companies’ use of the H-1B visa program, which is designed to help US employers fill high-skill jobs in sectors lacking domestic talent. A Bloomberg News investigation in July showed how some outsourcing firms have used their vast overseas workforces to overwhelm the annual lottery that decides which applicants can get new H-1Bs.
TCS is India’s biggest IT services firm by revenue, with more than 600,000 employees globally. It is one of India’s best-known companies, part of the sprawling Tata Group, and like other outsourcers, it serves US clients such as airlines, automakers, financial institutions and more.
In February, Bloomberg reported that TCS has made heavy use of another employment visa program reserved for managers, known as L-1A, and that some ex-staffers have alleged the company used them to circumvent H-1B rules. TCS has denied any wrongdoing.
Trump in January appointed as acting EEOC chair Andrea R. Lucas, who had served as an EEOC commissioner since his first term. She has vowed to step up investigations into what she describes as discrimination against American workers.
“Unlawful bias against American workers” is a major problem nationwide, with many employers preferring those on visas and other foreigners over American workers, she said in a February news release. Stamping out illegal discrimination will lessen demand for undocumented foreign workers and protect the US immigration system from abuse, she said.
In their complaints, the former workers noted that their dismissals came after TCS’s head of global human resources, Milind Lakkad, told an Indian news agency that TCS was open to hiring Indian visa workers in the US who had lost their jobs at major tech firms. Lakkad was reported as saying that some 70% of TCS’s employees in the US were Americans, but that the company would like to reduce that number to 50% in order to offer opportunities to its staff in India.
TCS declined to comment on specific details from the workers' complaints.
Discover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!
