A number of American professionals are claiming they were discriminated against in the workplace because of their race and age.
The American workers are accusing India’s Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), based in Dallas, of firing them abruptly in order to replace them with lower-paid Indian migrant workers on temporary H1-B work visas.
Since the end of 2023, at least 22 American workers have filed complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against TCS, reported The Wall Street Journal.
The former TCS employees are Caucasians, Asian-Americans, and Hispanic Americans in their 40s, 50s, and 60s, many of whom hold master’s degrees and other advanced degrees, according to complaints viewed by WSJ. While TCS generates half of its profit in North America, most of its workers live outside of the United States.
The former workers claimed they received plenty of positive feedback while working at the company, but that even though there were many years of good reviews and they often received bonuses, they were still suddenly terminated last year. Even when asked by clients to keep them on their projects, the company still terminated them. Younger, less experienced Indian workers allegedly took over their work.
The formal complaints claim that TCS’s global human resources head, Milind Lakkad, is trying to reduce the number of Americans it employs in the United States to provide more opportunities for Indians. One complaint even stated that TCS human resources staff told employees the company planned to save money by closing down a unit that employed many American workers, per WSJ.
A TCS spokesperson denied all the allegations, calling them meritless and misleading, per WSJ. She said TCS was an equal-opportunity employer in the United States.
Roughly 85,000 new H-1B visas are approved by Congress each year. While TCS’s Indian H-1B workers are purportedly being hired for less, the American Immigration Council reports that the median wage for U.S. workers in general in 2021 was $45,760, compared to the median wage for an H-1B worker of $108,000.
Between 2003 and 2021, H-1B workers experienced a 52% growth in median wage, while U.S. workers only saw a 39% growth.
Dallas saw the fourth-largest number (150,200) of H-1B recipients from FY2017 to FY2022, only ranking behind New York City (327,100), San Jose (215,700), and San Francisco (165,000).
