Larsen & Toubro Infotech faces racial bias suit in US

Manhattan: Larsen & Toubro Infotech, a provider of information technology services, discriminates against people who aren’t South Asian when hiring workers at its US facilities, according to a lawsuit filed by two former employees.

The ex-employees, both white Americans, allege that the Mumbai-based company’s US workforce of 7,500 is 95 per cent of South Asian decent and is mostly made up of visa holders from India.

The complaint filed on Wednesday in New York is one of several similar cases accusing India’s big IT firms of hiring bias in the US. The first to go to trial ended last year in a victory for Tata Consultancy Services, which was cleared by a California jury of discrimination claims.

Larsen & Toubro is accused of submitting fraudulent letters with visa applications to maximize the number of South Asians it hires in the US The suit describes how the company would send a letter to the US government, supposedly from a client, attesting to the need for certain employees to work in America. But the letters were drafted and signed by Larsen & Toubro, according to the complaint.

Larsen & Toubro is now under investigation by US Customs and Immigration Services for the practices, according to the suit, which is seeking class-action status. In one example cited in the complaint, Larsen & Toubro allegedly submitted fake invitation letters purportedly signed by client Apple Inc.

Larsen & Toubro, Apple and the customs agency didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.