Infosys Under Fire After Claims That It Directed Former VP Of Talent Acquisition To Not Hire ‘Women With Children’

Infosys Under Fire After Claims That It Directed Former VP Of Talent Acquisition To Not Hire ‘Women With Children’

The United States District Court has rejected the Bengaluru-headquartered Infosys’ motion to dismiss the lawsuit which was filed by Jill Prejean, who was a former Vice President of talent acquisition at the organisation. The case highlights the fact that her position was wrongfully terminated and that employees tend to face an extremely hostile work environment. She has filed this lawsuit against Infosys and mentioned their former senior VP and head of consulting, Mark Livingston, and their former partners, Dan Albright and Jerry Kurtz, by name. She also brought up the fact that they have discriminatory hiring practices.

This is the second occurrence of such allegations against the Indian-origin IT organisation. They were also, previously known to have been practising discrimination in their hiring practices in the United States. She detailed these malpractices further in her lawsuit.

What Did Jill Prejean State In The Lawsuit?

Jill Prejean was very clear about the fact that Infosys asked her to participate in illegal practices in terms of their hiring procedures. Highlighting these requests, she elaborated further in the court saying that she was asked by Infosys to ‘avoid hiring people of Indian origin, women with children at home and candidates aged 50 or above.’ Furthermore, when she clearly declined to comply and participate in such illegal behaviour while hiring senior executives for the company, she was subjected to unjust termination. Jill further exclaimed that Infosys’ partners Dan Albright and Jerry Kurtz turned extremely hostile and negative towards her.

The discriminatory biases being practised by the company, brought into light by Jill Prejean clearly violate New York City Human Rights Laws. She tried to change the toxic culture in the first few months after her employment but it was all in vain as her trials were met with extreme resistance by the pre-mentioned partners who then, ended up surpassing her authority in the position to continue these unlawful practices.

She further revealed in her complaint that the company had a culture of “illegal discriminatory animus among the partner level executives” on the basis of age, origin, gender and caregiver status.

Such awful practices are widespread in various top-level firms and organisations across the globe. Eligible people are judged, discriminated against and unlawfully rejected only because of their gender, age or caregiver status and this is beyond just enraging. It Infringes on the rights of people and on top of that, it also makes them feel like they weren’t good enough to crack into such top-tier organisations. It not only undermines their confidence but also leaves cracks in their passion and determination towards achieving their dreams and goals.

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Such discriminatory practices should be met with heavy charges and equally heavy penalties. In my opinion, that’s only right given the chaos they have created in their wake. I salute Jill Prejean and the people like her who dare to step into the light and speak up against such illegal practices. It’s about time the courts take necessary action against Infosys, validating her struggle against their toxic practices and culture. Isn’t it?

Image Source: Shutterstock

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