TCS Accused of Racial, Ageist Discrimination: US Agency Probing 'Over Two Dozen' Complaints
The Wire Staff
New Delhi: The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is investigating’ allegations that Tata Consultancy Services Limited discriminated against workers based on their race, age and national origin, Bloomberg reports.
TCS is India’s biggest IT outsourcer.
The report says that the allegations come from former employees from "non-South Asian ethnic backgrounds over the age of 40, who say the company targeted them for layoffs but spared Indian colleagues, some of whom were working on H-1B skilled worker visas."
These complaints started arriving from 2023, the report says, adding that while Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigations and complaints are confidential, the news organisation was able to review over 24 complaints.
In April 2024, Democratic US Representative Seth Moulton wrote to the Commission, urging it to formally investigate TCS and suggesting that the company’s actions may represent a broader pattern of discrimination and potential misuse of US work visa programmes meant to address domestic talent shortages.
A TCS spokesperson told Bloomberg that the allegations were "meritless and misleading."
Similar claims were made by three former TCS employees in the UK as well, as The Guardian had reported earlier. These workers said the company had discriminated against them in 2023, based on their age and nationality as part of a redundancy programme.
The allegations against TCS come amidst mounting criticism of the H-1B visa programme in the US. The H-1B visa allows employers to hire non-immigrant workers in specialty occupations.
The H-1B is one of the most popular visas for Indians in the US. For students, the go-to visa is the F-1, which has recently seen hundreds of revocations under the Trump's administration's apparent immigration crackdown.
Earlier this year, Bloomberg had reported on allegations that TCS has made heavy use of the L-1A employment visa programme which is reserved for managers, to circumvent H-1B rules. TCS denied any wrongdoing.
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