Infosys faces legal action in US for alleged discrimination on basis of gender, race

According to an Oxfram report, gender discrimination is responsible for a 98 per cent employment gap between men and women in India. This year Wipro was named the best place for women to work in India, but it has earlier faced 116 cases of sexual harassment not long ago in 2019. Now its rival Infosys is also in the dock over gender and age bias, for which it faces legal proceedings in the US, which accounts for bulk of its sales.

Bias on the bases of gender and age

A senior talent acquisition executive has alleged that Infosys retaliated against her and she face bias herself after pointing out discriminatory practices in the hiring process. According to the complainant Jill Prejean, partners of Infosys were reluctant to hire additional consultants of Indian-origin as well as women with children and people older than 50. Her refusal to screen candidates based on such illegal, discriminatory parameters, was labelled a battle for control by partner level executives.

Prejean alleged that she was threatened with removal for not complying and faced a hostile work environment as well as discrimination herself. She was later terminated from the job after an alleged pressure campaign.

Not the first time it faces such allegations

Infosys hasn’t commented on the case, but last year four other women had approached the Equal Employment commission, accusing Infosys of discriminating against them and favouring men as well as Indian candidates. In India, 69 women at Infosys had reported sexual harassment, during FY 2018-19.

Other than Infosys, another Indian tech giant Wipro is also facing a lawsuit in the UK, where a British-Indian employee Shreya Ukil level accusations of discrimination, unequal pay, harassment and unfair dismissal against the firm. In the US, California’s regulators had also sued tech firm Cisco over an Indian engineer facing caste-based discrimination at the workplace in 2020.