Posted on 09/22/2015 10:36:15 AM PDT by ConservingFreedom
SAN FRANCISCO (CN) - A federal judge ruled that claims an Indian consulting company is racially discriminatory in hiring its U.S. workforce may proceed in court.
Lead plaintiff Steven Heldt sued Tata Consultancy Services - headquartered in Mumbai and one of the largest IT employers in the world - in April, alleging that the company hires South Asian workers on visas for 95 percent of its workforce.
Heldt named three methods of discrimination against non-South Asian workers in the complaint, claiming that Tata uses the visa process to sponsor a high number of South Asian workers with H-1B, L-1 and B-1 visas; hires a disproportionate number of South Asian workers who reside in the United States with a discriminatory preference; and discriminates against its non-South Asian employees in employment decisions.
U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers refused Tata's motion to dismiss the claims and strike some of Heldt's allegations Friday, finding that the company's arguments were out of keeping with the plaintiffs' allegations.
Addressing Tata's argument that "a showing must be made that the potential visa holder will not displace an American worker," Rogers said the "suggestion is tenuous at best."
"Tata's attempt to recast the first amended complaint as a bald attack on its business model is the result of a skewed reading of the first amended complaint," she wrote in the ruling.
She said the complaint "has sufficient allegations of discriminatory conduct to put Tata on notice of the basis for the claim."
Rogers also rejected Tata's argument that the court does not have subject matter jurisdiction over the claims related to its use of the visa programs, since Tata only cited cases addressing subject matter jurisdiction where the plaintiffs' claims were "based on the misuse of the visa process." (Italics in ruling.)
Nor can Tata reasonably argue that Heldt lacks standing, Rogers said, because nothing more than his current allegations are required to maintain his cause of action for discrimination.
Rogers then addressed Tata's motion to strike certain allegations, finding that "even a cursory review" of the company's arguments "show they are nothing more than substantive attacks on plaintiffs' allegations" and are therefore not appropriate for resolution on a motion to strike.
And responding to Tata's claim that some of the plaintiffs' cited statistical data was irrelevant, Rogers said that "it is quite obvious" that the data "may be relevant to describe, at a minimum, the defendant's practices."
She ordered the plaintiffs to file a second amended complaint by Sept. 28, clarifying the scope of the persons included in the proposed class; whether the causes of action allege discrimination on the basis of race, national origin or both; and the plaintiffs' disavowal that they allege any misuse or abuse of the visa programs.
Neither side could be immediately reached for comment on Monday.
Like Mexican in the ag and construction industry, H1B’s are the wetbacks of the tech field.
There is always a subjective component in hiring that allows for wriggle room out of these lawsuits.
Tata Consultancy Services?..........................can I get a job doing that?......................
And they're also alike in being reliably liberal voters.
This is good.
Yeah, especially when you're discriminating against straight white males.
Founded by Jamsetji Tata in 1868.
TCS is huge. We use them for our in-house application development.
The overwhelming majority of web programming done for most American businesses is done by Indian resources, and the majority of those resources come from Tata.
You are Right, and they will change your resume according to requirement and you can get contract position without interview. Fix is in. But you have to be Indian from Andhra Pradesh.
Reminds me of a contract synthesis company that I was the analytical manager for a few years ago.
Small company, had 18 employees - 15 of whom were Indians. They had one black guy, me, and a white lady who once got pregnant and they fired until she signed up for unemployment (which they’d be paying for) and they hired her back.
Worst employers I ever worked for, bar none. Had no sense of chemical or other workplace safety at all. Constantly lied to clients and employees. At least one of the Indian chemists was here illegally, having overstayed an H1-B. The poor guy (who was a Ph.D organic chemist, mind you) was paid about $20,000 a year and had to stay with another guy and his family since he couldn’t even afford an apartment for himself. They were so cheap that it was like pulling teeth even to get basic laboratory chemicals and equipment ordered. I had to badger them for months to even get a service contract with Agilent (our HPLC manufacturer) purchased just in case something major like a circuit board or internal pump part went out on one of the stacks that I wouldn’t be able to repair myself.
I was very close to leaving, when they did me the favour of laying me off and closing the analytical lab so they could divert the funds over to a GMP synthesis suite they were planning on building.
I could consult with Tatas all day and all night.........................
When I was actively looking for a job, I ignored all phone calls and emails from anyone not obviously a native US citizen.
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