Recently, a number of Indian IT companies have been facing legal action against an alleged hiring bias in their recruitment process, and the latest one to face the fire is HCL Technologies. A US legislation has filed a class-action lawsuit against the IT company for being discriminatory in its process of hiring an employee.
In an age where the world is fighting discrimination at every point of life, IT firms carrying out a biased process of employment is the last thing we need.
Read on to know how the story unfolded:
Discrimination Against Americans
Apparently, HCL Technologies found a reason not to hire a certain Gregory Handloser for five times. He was considered to be employed with HCL, but the company did not hire him owing to the ‘systematic and continuous discriminatory scheme.’
The lawsuit states that Mr. Handloser discussed a sales position vacancy in the company with a former colleague and associate vice-president at HCL, Ralph Billington. The sales position vacancy was at HCL’s UTC Aerospace Systems, where he was the hiring manager.
Billington told Handloser about his interest in hiring him, however, superiors instructed the former to hire an Indian in that position.
HCL Technologies is going over the lawsuit and is planning to respond soon. In a statement, the company refuted the claims of alleged hiring bias and said that the company is proud of the employment practices carried out in the firm, which includes hiring and promotion of their diverse team in U.S. Subsidiary (HCL, America).
HCL said, “It employs 15K people in the US with 63% hired locally in the country.”
Kotchen & Low’s Enmity with Indian IT Firms
Kotchen & Low is a law firm has filed the lawsuit last month, in Northern District of California -San Jose division. Apparently, the law firm has a long history of going after IT firms in India, some of which are
Infosys, Wipro, Cognizant, Tech Mahindra, TCS, and now, HCL Technologies.
A senior executive in charge of the legal matters at an unnamed Indian IT firm said, “This law firm has a history of going after Indian IT companies. It is easy to file a case in the US, and sometimes it costs more to fight the case than to settle.”
However, in November, this firm lost against TCS, when TCS was cleared of all charges of racial discrimination against Americans in its hiring process.
Will HCL Technologies be able to remove this tarnish? Share your thoughts with us right here in the comments section.
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