U.S. Jury Rules in Favor of TCS Over Alleged Hiring Discrimination

A federal jury in California has sided with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and rejected former employees claim that the IT services major discriminated against non-Americans in its hiring practices.

According to a report in Bloomberg, a federal jury in Oakland, California rejected claims by four former employees of the IT major, in a case that was among the first to go to trial in the U.S.

Other Indian IT companies like HCL Technologies, Infosys and Wipro too are facing similar charges of being biased toward South Asian employees, financial news portal Moneycontrol.com said.

“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, as reported in the portal.

According to a Bloomberg report, TCS cited statistical evidence that the odds of claims made by the defendants were one in a billion, during the trial.

The Mumbai-headquartered company, which is India’s largest IT services company, said that since 2011, the company fired 12.6 percent of its non-South Asian workers in the U.S., compared with less than 1 percent of its South Asian employees, Bloomberg reported.

President Donald Trump’s policies to promote and protect local talent have led to increased scrutiny of technology professionals as the country tries to curb overall immigration, Moneycontrol.com said on its website.

Over the last two years, the U.S. has been trying to tweak the H-1B work visa program, the most sought after visa by Indian IT companies and professionals, to ensure jobs go to local hires.

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