Erin Green first joined Infosys in 2011 as the head of immigration in the US. But, he was asked to leave the company last year. Following this, Green has filed a lawsuit against the Bengaluru based software company claiming employee discrimination and retaliation by the upper management.
He filed his lawsuit a few days ago, on 19 June, in an American district court in the Eastern District of Texas. Green’s counsel is presently Kilgore & Kilgore, PLLC. A statement from his complaint, which is 53 pages long, reads as follows:
Plaintiff (Green) was terminated because of defendant’s (Infosys) obsessional preference for employees of South Asian race and national origin, usually Indian, and as retaliation for reporting Nayak and Hampapur’s discriminatory treatment of himself and others on the basis of race and national origin
In his complaint, Green has raised questions about the manner in which Infosys decided to fire him and has also placed charges against two senior management employees — Vasudeva Nayak, who was head of global immigration and Binod Hampapur, the executive vice-president and global head of talent and technology operations of the company. Green worked under Nayak and used to report to him before he left.
This complaint against Infosys by a former employee is extremely detrimental to the company’s reputation. Green’s allegation that it discriminates against non-Asian employees is a serious matter of embarrassment for the management which is currently being led by chief executive Vishal Sikka.
This lawsuit also does not bode well for Sikka’s current attempts to advertise Infosys in the US, where it plans to hire 10,000 Americans over the next two years.
Additionally, with the ascent of Donald Trump to President and his policy of ‘Buy American, Hire American’ then it means no American citizen is going to want to be hired by a company that has allegations of racial discrimination made by the former head of immigration.
Just last week, Infosys lost one of its most important executives, Sandeep Dadlani who was the president and head of operations in the US. After over sixteen years of service in the company, Dadlani quit to join big American confectionery maker Mars.
