White ex-employee at Infosys in Plano files suit, claims company favored workers from India

White ex-employee at Infosys in Plano files suit, claims company favored workers from India

Written by Karen Robinson-Jacobs June 21, 2017

Infosys, the India-based information technology consulting firm with an office in Plano, is facing yet another reverse discrimination lawsuit asserting that it creates a hostile work environment for workers who are not from India or South Asia.

Erin Green, a former supervisor at Infosys, filed suit this week in the Eastern District of Texas in Sherman, alleging that he and black and white staffers on his team were denied raises and promotions, and that other "non-South Asian" workers were berated by South Asian company officials.

Green, of Frisco, is white and rose to the rank of "head of global immigration" while working in the company's Plano office. He was terminated in June of 2016, ostensibly for violating Infosys' "code of conduct by using his work computer for personal use a number of years earlier."

The race-based discrimination lawsuit by a former American employee comes just weeks after Infosys -- India's second-largest technology services company -- announced plans to hire 10,000 American workers at a time when President Donald Trump has been pushing an "America First" policy.

An Infosys spokeswoman said the company is "not in a position to comment on ongoing litigation."

Green's attorney said he did not have time to answer questions.

In filing suit, Green joined a list of Infosys job applicants and employees who have filed suit in courts in several U.S. jurisdictions arguing reverse discrimination.
"Infosys maintains roughly 200,000 employees working in the United States," Green's suit said. While less than 5 percent of the U. S. population is of the South Asian race and national origin, roughly 93 percent to 94 percent of Infosys's United States workforce "is of the South Asian national origin, (primarily Indian)."

"This disproportionately South Asian and Indian workforce, by race and national origin, is a result of Infosys's intentional employment discrimination against individuals who are not South Asian, including discrimination in the hiring, promotion, compensation and termination of individuals," the suit said.

"Infosys has gone to great lengths to obtain its primarily South Asian workforce in the U. S., in particular by utilizing professional H-1B and L-1 work visas to bring South Asians (primarily Indians) into the United States to work in information technology ("IT") consulting roles," according to the suit.

Data from a previous suit, referenced in Green's suit, "illustrates the overwhelming dis-proportionate percentage of non-Asians being involuntarily terminated and not given promotions," the suit said.

Green's 22-page suit outlines the career path of an employee who rose rapidly while working for a white supervisor, and whose career tanked after he was assigned to a supervisor who was of "the South Asian race and Indian national origin."

After the suit, Green "was subjected to discriminatory measures of increasing severity designed to undermine both his position and his professional credibility within" the company.

The new supervisor "promptly began stripping [Green] of his immigration 'operations' responsibilities and transitioning or maintaining these roles with less experienced, lower level South Asian employees in India," the suit said.

A suit seeking class-action status, making similar allegations, was filed in Wisconsin. A job discrimination suit was filed in 2014 in the Pennsylvania Eastern District Court.
The company announced a $34 million settlement to end a federal investigation into allegations that it circumvented immigration laws to bring thousands of lower-paid workers into the United States.


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