A former woman employee of global software major Infosys filed a lawsuit in a US court alleging racial discrimination against her by the company as an act of retaliation.
"Plaintiff Davina Linguist of African-American origin demanded a trial by jury for alleged retaliation by Infosys after she testified against it in another law suit in 2016," said the United States Eastern District Court of Texas, Sherman division on the law suit accessed by IANS.
Davina testified in a case filed by Brenda Koehler, an American job applicant, who accused Infosys of discrimination against local job applicants by favouring workers from South Asia to fill positions in the US.
The $12.8-billion Infosys employs about 20,000 techies in the US, with 90 per cent of them of Indian descent to service its global clients in the North America market, which accounts for about 60 per cent of its software export revenue.
Seeking compensation for the damages, Linguist has alleged in the lawsuit that soon after her deposition against the company in 2016, she was stripped of her title as the head of diversity recruiting and demoted for improper conduct.
"Subsequently, I was forced to resign from the company on March 7, 2017, as I was demoted to a full-desk recruiter, a position I held in 2012 and prior to becoming the head of the Infosys diversity recruiting programme," said the lawsuit.
Denying the charge, the city-based IT behemoth said it would defend itself in the matter.
"We are aware of the case recently (June 11) filed by Linguist and deny allegations of discrimination and retaliation against her. We will defend in this matter," said the company in an e-mail to IANS.
The racism charge came at a time when the US is in the grip of protests against racial discrimination across America after a 46-year-old African American (George Floyd) was allegedly killed by a white policeman on May 25 at Minneapolis in Minnesota state.
"We have a policy of treating everyone fairly and providing equal employment opportunity and an inclusive workplace to all," Infosys said in the statement.