US jury rules in favour of TCS over alleged discrimination

Moneycontrol News 

A jury in California has rejected claims by former Tata Consultancy Services staffers that the IT services firm discriminated against non-Americans, Bloomberg reported.

A federal jury in Oakland, California, on Wednesday sided with TCS against four former employees, in a case that was among the first to go to trial in the US, the report said.

HCL Technologies, Infosys  and Wipro also face similar claims of being biased towards South Asian employees.

“We have always maintained, the claims made in this case were baseless and we are gratified that the jury agreed. The success of TCS rests on the talents, expertise and deep industry knowledge of our employees, who help our customers in their growth and transformation journeys. So the decisions we make about the hiring and retention of employees are based purely on their capabilities and fit in serving our customers' business needs,” a TCS spokesperson said on Thursday.

Bloomberg reported that at the trial, TCS cited statistical evidence that the odds of claims made by the defendants were one in a billion.

They said that since 2011, the company fired 12.6 percent of its non-South Asian workers in the US, compared with less than 1 percent of its South Asian employees, Bloomberg said.

US President Donald Trump’s protectionist policies have led to increased scrutiny of technology professionals as the country tries to curb overall immigration.

The US has been trying to tweak the H-1B work visa programme since the past couple of years and has increased scrutiny for Indian IT employees who were a big beneficiary of the work visa programme.

However, most large IT services firms have been trying to reduce their dependence on these visas, and have upped hiring in the US.

“Skilled American workers are critical to the success of the US business and to the nation’s economic success, and we will continue to invest heavily in the country’s workforce, academic alliances and our extensive youth STEM education initiatives,” TCS added in the statement.