Tata Consultancy Services denied dismissal over 2015 discriminatory lawsuit

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A federal judge in Oakland, California has rejected a request from Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. (TCS) to dismiss the 2015 lawsuit accusing them of violating anti-discrimination laws by favoring Indians Americans.

Although, the District Court in California expanded the anti-discrimination lawsuit into class action against the company over termination of American employees, India’s largest IT firm told the Economic Times that it will vigorously defend itself.

“TCS will vigorously defend its position and expects positive outcome. There are no discriminatory practices in any part of the company and TCSBSE 0.30 % is confident that it will be able to defend its position at the Trial,” TCS said in a statement.

According to the economic Times report, TCS was sued back in 2015 by a white, American IT worker named Brian Buchanan, who accused them of overwhelming favoritism toward Indian American workers, adding that he experienced “substantial anti-American sentiment” in his 20 months at TCS, and was ultimately terminated.

According to an International Business Times report, Buchanan further claimed that he was among 400 people terminated though was asked to stay for a few months to train the Indian TCS employees who were replacing him.

However, TCS has argued that Buchanan’s experience does not prove he was a victim of bias as “he has ‘no idea’ whether the application process was discriminatory because he did not attend any of the town hall meetings he was invited to during the Edison transition to learn about open positions with TCS and how to apply for them—and he did not apply for a specific job, the company said in a court filing.”

Another IT firm, Infosys also faced a similar lawsuit in Milwaukee four years ago and both the IT firms have come under pressure from President Donald Trump’s desire to hire more American locals and he is also wanting to decrease the amount of H-1B visa applications in a year.

Earlier in May, Infosys announced plans to hire 10,000 American workers over the next two years and open four technology centers in the US, starting with Indiana.

The following month, TCS said it had hired more than 12,500 Americans in the last five years and expects to remain at par or exceed prior years’ levels for the remainder of 2017 as TCS operates in over 50 countries, including the U.S.