US Cisco caste discrimination suit: Case against company to continue, engineers get clean chit

Since the time the case has been filed, Cisco added caste to its FY22 ‘Code of Business Conduct’.

The case against the two engineers in the US Cisco caste discrimination suit brought by the California Civil Rights Department (CRD) has been “voluntarily dismissed”, while the suit continues against the company. It will be in arbitration, with a mediation conference between the company and the CRD scheduled for May 2. Voluntary dismissal means a lawsuit that has been terminated at the behest of the plaintiff — CRD in this case.

The case was first filed in 2020 by CRD against Cisco, which alleged that a Dalit engineer, who has been kept anonymous and only known as ‘John Doe’, was discriminated against on the basis of his caste by managers Sundar Iyer and Ramana Kompella. The suit alleged that because both knew that John Doe was Dalit, he was “expected to accept a caste hierarchy” within the workplace, he received less pay, fewer opportunities, and other inferior terms and conditions of employment. The case against Iyer and Kompella has now been dropped.

According to a statement sent by CRD to the Associated Press, the case against Cisco is ongoing, and that the department “will continue to vigorously litigate the matter on behalf of the people of California”. As per the statement, CRD is committed to securing relief and ensuring company-wide corrective action.

Cisco has previously pursued private arbitration in the matter as well, which was rejected in 2022 by the California appeals court.

Both Iyer and Kompella had filed a Motion for Sanctions, or a demand for money — they asked for an amount of not less than $10,000. The voluntary dismissal was based on the Motion for Sanctions being withdrawn as well, according to HAF.

It is important to note that since the time the case has been filed, Cisco added caste to its FY22 ‘Code of Business Conduct’ prohibiting conduct that singles out an employee or a group of employees in a negative way based on characteristics “that have been the basis for historical marginalization”.

The Hindu American Foundation, which had also filed a motion to intervene in the case, said in a statement that their lawyers believe that the “CRD case offers important insight into consequences South Asians in California will face if state senator Aisha Wahab’s proposed caste bill that would add “caste” to state-wide nondiscrimination policies, SB 403, is implemented.”

The organisation’s executive director Suhag Shukla said in a statement, “Two Indian Americans endured a nearly three-year nightmare of unending investigations, a brutal online witch hunt, and a presumption of guilt in the media after the CRD sullied their reputation alleging that they engaged in discrimination based on caste.”

According to HAF citing court filings, Iyer had ‘actively recruited’ John Doe, and offered him a generous starting package and stock grants.

HAF said CRD relied upon a report by Equality Labs to buttress its claims of discrimination in the sector, referring to a 2018 report titled ‘Caste in the United States', something HAF says the judge refused to accept as evidence in 2021.

“Resolutions from several student and faculty senates demanding the addition of “caste” to campus nondiscrimination policies at a number of colleges and universities across the country have cited both findings from the Equality Labs report and the Cisco case as definitive evidence of caste discrimination,” HAF says.

The case also sharply divided the diaspora, which comes at a time when there has been a significant push and pull with regard to adding caste as a protected category in institutions and cities in the US. Two months ago, Seattle banned discrimination on the basis of caste after its local council voted to add caste to the non-discrimination laws.

Universities such as California State University and Brown University have added caste as a protected category to their anti-discrimination policies.

Dalit rights organisation Equality Labs said in a statement that the Cisco case “is indicative of the pervasiveness of caste hierarchy in the Indian diaspora and reflects not just one, but too many accounts of caste-based discrimination in the US workforce.”

“Whatever the outcome of mediation, Equality Labs stands with all caste-oppressed workers and communities who have found their voice in breaking the silence around caste discrimination and turning pain into power as they work to make all American workplaces and educational institutions safe from discrimination,” said Thenmozhi Soundararajan, the executive director of the organisation, in a statement.