Mumbai: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) was pulled up by a US jury asking why engineers hired at its American outposts are 13 times as likely to be fired if they’re not South Asian, according to a report. The Indian IT outsourcing company will be going on trial on Monday in California over racial discrimination claims by American workers who lost their jobs at TCS offices in the US because they hadn’t been assigned to any of its clients, Bloomberg reported.
The trial will also affect work-visa programs companies use to bring overseas workers to the states, a practice US President Donald Trump has criticised in his protectionist push. TCS and Infosys and Wipro have all been squeezed by the Trump administration to hire more Americans on US soil. TCS denies any unlawful bias in its US operations and says in court filings that the Caucasian American leading the lawsuit was removed from one of its projects and ultimately terminated over “performance concerns”.
It said it can’t comment specifically on the pending litigation, but believes it has a strong case and will prevail at trial. TCS told Bloomberg it can’t comment specifically on the pending litigation, but believes it has a strong case and will prevail at trial.