Infosys faces legal action over discriminatory recruitment process in US

Infosys’s motion to dismiss a former executive’s complaint accusing the company and its senior members of hiring bias has been rejected by a US court.

The suit was filed by Former Vice President (VP) of talent acquisition Jill Prejean in September 2021 against Infosys, former senior VP and head of consulting Mark Livingston, and former partners Dan Albright and Jerry Kurtz, as per a Money Control report.

Prejean claimed in her complaint that the company fired her for objecting to the recruitment process that discriminated against some candidates.

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She has alleged that she was directed by the company to avoid hiring candidates of Indian origin, women candidates that have "children at home", and candidates that are over 50 years old.

The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York rejected Infosys’s request to dismiss her complaint on September 30, 2022. The judge has asked the defendants to file an answer within 21 days from the date of the order.

Prejean was hired at Infosys in 2018 as the VP of talent acquisition and she was 59 years old then.

In her complaint, Prejean has said that when she joined the company, she was "shocked to find a rampant culture of illegal discriminatory animus among the partner level executives based on age, gender, and caregiver status”.

This is not the first time, the company is facing allegations of gender bias. Previously, in 2021 four female employees of Infosys filed a discrimination complaint with Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging that the firm favoured Indian and male workers.