Cognizant Discriminated Against Non-Indian Workers, US Jury Says (bloomberg.com) 34
IT services and consulting company Cognizant engaged in a pattern of discriminatory conduct toward non-Indian workers and should pay punitive damages to compensate employees who suffered harm, a US jury found. From a report: The verdict came after the IT firm failed to persuade a Los Angeles federal judge last month to toss a 2017 job bias class-action lawsuit when a previous trial ended with a deadlocked jury. A Cognizant spokesperson said the company is disappointed with the verdict and plans to appeal. "We provide equal employment opportunities for all employees and have built a diverse and inclusive workplace that promotes a culture of belonging in which all employees feel valued, are engaged and have the opportunity to develop and succeed," Jeff DeMarrais said in an emailed statement.
Bloomberg News reported in July that the Teaneck, New Jersey-based company was among a handful of outsourcing firms exploiting loopholes in the H1-B visa lottery system. The company defended its practices, saying it's fully compliant with US laws on the visa process. Cognizant also said that in recent years it has increased its US hiring and reduced its dependence on the H1-B program.
Bloomberg News reported in July that the Teaneck, New Jersey-based company was among a handful of outsourcing firms exploiting loopholes in the H1-B visa lottery system. The company defended its practices, saying it's fully compliant with US laws on the visa process. Cognizant also said that in recent years it has increased its US hiring and reduced its dependence on the H1-B program.
A path forward (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
That sounds like a great solution if the only thing that matters is the ability to answer questions in a written form. I believe that is rarely the case though, and it shouldn't be, unless you want a bunch of people who love to be technically correct but are impossible to work with.
It also assumes that there is no implicit bias in the questions, or in their interpretation, which I don't think matches reality. It's like AI models reproducing the bias from their training data.
Don't get me wrong, I like the id
Re:A path forward (Score:4, Interesting)
The lawsuit wasn't even about hiring, it was about the hostile work environment and firing. HR hired some token whites and females and threw them into a work environment with way above average levels of racism and misogynism for the expected results.
It would take a lot more beatings for Indian dominated companies/departments to shape up. Statistically significantly more than native majority, but that would also imply racism in the minds of idiots, so they can countersue and stay more racist. Ahhh the great melting pot of diversity combined with civil rights, it just works ... for lawyers.
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Unfortunately in many cases it's de-facto and even de-jure illegal: Blind hiring.
Blind hiring is not illegal. In fact, blind hiring is what is needed if people are so concerned about getting the most qualified person. Since any evidence of race, age, etc are not known, the only thing to go on are the person's qualfications.
The problem is, blind hiring increases diversity and since diversity is a naughty word, companies don't want to use it.
Have someone interview the candidate and ask the same questions
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Have you been listening to the Right recently? Does White Nationalism ring a bell?
Re: A path forward (Score:2)
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Blind hiring reduces diversity, because it focuses on excellence. And excellence is concentrated in a very homogenous group of people. Current DEI crowd calls excellence a feature of whiteness and has long stood in diametric opposition to it throughout their literature.
This is why it in fact either already illegal or in process of being outlawed everywhere where "diversity" is a key consideration.
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There is no study. They'll never respond with anything. Cowards generally don't. They just like lying because it makes them feel good.
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Blind hiring reduces diversity, because it focuses on excellence. And excellence is concentrated in a very homogenous group of people. Current DEI crowd calls excellence a feature of whiteness and has long stood in diametric opposition to it throughout their literature.
This is why it in fact either already illegal or in process of being outlawed everywhere where "diversity" is a key consideration.
Clearly your sock puppet accounts are working to spread bullshit.
Blind hiring is not illegal in any way, shape, or form. Nowhere. Keep lying if it makes you feel good, but it's always going to be a lie.
Every study done shows blind hiring increases diversity. In fact, for every 1% increase in diversity there is a 9% increase in sales revenue [aihr.com].
Blind hiring reduces the bias we all have when selecting candidates.
The top 25% of companies with a diverse workforce outperform their competitors by 33% [toggl.com].
The reason yo
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> I don't hire white men because I don't want a bunch of lazy whiners who feel entitled to a position just because of the color of their skin. That's an HR incident waiting to happen.
Your racist and sexist hiring practices are definitely an opportunity for an HR incident waiting to happen.
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Say I need to hire an engineer who will help my company grow into the future. Do I hire the 70 year old or the 30 year old?
Say I need to hire a social worker to assist with maternity issues. Do I hire the man or the woman? Suppose it is in a predominately African-American region, do I hire the white or the African-American?
Suppose I want to hire someone who will handle customer relations with people in a foreign country. Do I hire an immigrant from that country or some white dude who has never left middle A
Re: A path forward (Score:2)
So many (Score:2)
Surprised this isn't about TCS.
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Or Wipro where non-Indian workers are replaced by lower cost and lower competence personnel typically within a year of a contract win.
Import the third world (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: Import the third world (Score:2)
Not when you hand pick high quality talent from the third world. Not saying they are doing that in this case, but the US does have ways to bring in exceptional talent, and should encourage another nation's talented workers to come to the US.
Unfortunately, the current system tends to bring in mid to lower level talent at bargain prices.
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The current system makes visa holders far too dependent on sponsor companies to maintain their visa status. If you want top tier talent from other countries, they need more options than just one sponsor.
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What needs to happen is to just do away with the H-1B program. By trying workers to employers, this creates an indentured servitude market.
Instead, if someone is so damn good that they get a job over US citizens, give them a permanent residency visa, with a path to citizenship. This way, if there is outstanding talent, they will be rewarded and not treated as slaves.
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Become the third world.
Yes, indeed [buzzfeednews.com].
Kindly, (Score:1)
do the needful. Rest is fine.
Self-evident Untruth (Score:2)
We ... have built a diverse and inclusive workplace that promotes a culture of belonging ...
The very fact that employees brought this case shows that they did not.
No brainer. Cost is everything. (Score:2)
Let's be honest. South Asian contractors are way, way cheaper than their Western equivalents. Why? Because there are millions of them, and they live in a poverty-ridden country with a waleak currency and can accept rates that are a fraction of the minimum wage in developed countries and still survive.
Meanwhile, executives don't care about quality of work and about where the staff is from as long as it's cheap. Bottom line is everything.
The only answer to this problem is to legislate and to force companies t
I love when companies talk like this. (Score:2)
"We did nothing wrong!" "Oh and if we did, which I'm not saying, rest assured we've changed our ways so the thing we didn't do won't happen again."
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"I mean... never happens for the first time!"
It's not Indian (Score:2)
It's indigenous people of the Americas.
This isn't uncommon (Score:2)
While here in the USA you hear about white nationalism, I have seen that many from the upper castes in India that are now here in the USA clearly show their racism, pushing to hiring as many from India as they can, and then being very abusive toward anyone not from India. The abuse isn't limited to women, or anything like that, but is clearly just anyone who isn't from India and who isn't in a position at or above where they are on the company org chart.
Note that this is NOT saying that everyone from Indi