Kamal Ghorui
A former Cognizant employee wins $8.4 million in a lawsuit that alleged hiring bias against Cognizant that the company only prefers Indians and fires Americans.
A former employee of Cognizant Technology Solutions went to court alleging hiring bias by the company, as he was laid off in 2016 after working in the company for a decade. Jean-Claude Franchitti said his dismissal came after he questioned the cheap labor model of the IT major, as he observed that the company was preferring cheap labor from India. In 2016, he had a $350,000 per year role, and he was fired. A federal jury in Manhattan sided with Franchitti and awarded hum $8.4 million — $4.2 million in back pay for lost wages and an additional $4.2 million in punitive damages. Franchitti now teaches at NYU.Franchitti said he signed many letters that were fraudulently used by Cognizant to help secure US visas for Indians. The letters certified that employees would report directly to him at Cognizant’s New Jersey location but he soon realized that those jobs listed in those letters did not even exist ad the employees would not be working under his supervision. He also alleged that Cognizant used to apply for L-1 and B-1 visas, as H-1B was more expensive. And those who were ired by H-1B did not get the required wages.Non-Indians were promoted less frequently and were met with hostilities by Indian employees, he alleged.As he verbally raised questions over these practices, he claimed he was terminated without prior notice or being placed on the bench. Cognizant refused the allegations. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis reacted to the verdict and said he was glad that Cognizant was held accountable. “The lengths some of these companies go to discriminate against Americans in favor of cheap foreign labor is truly disturbing. Glad to see some accountability. But the easiest thing to do is simply end the visas that provide the pathway to discriminate in the first place,” DeSantis said.
