According to a recent report by Bloomberg, a whistleblower ex-employee of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) said that the Indian tech firm was "gaming the system" and committed "visa fraud" to avoid US labour regulations and H-1B visa rules.
Anil Kini, an Information Technology (IT) manager at TCS' Denver branch, said that bosses directed him to falsify internal organisational charts and misclassify personnel as part of a cover-up.
Notably, Kini's latest petition is an appeal, as his previous complaint was dismissed earlier this year, the report stated.
Kini told Bloomberg that TCS mislabeled frontline workers as managers in order to bring them to the United States on L-1A visas. He said the practice began during the first Donald Trump administration in 2017 when employment visa rules were tightened.
L-1A visas are less regulated than H-1B visas for qualified professionals. H-1B visas impose stringent educational and income criteria that management visas do not. These visas, meant for managerial transfers, are less restricted than H-1B skilled-worker visas, which have more stringent wage and educational criteria.
Further, Kini accused higher officials of encouraging him to falsify internal organisational charts and depict frontline personnel as managers in order to avoid examination of visa requirements.
He is one of several former TCS employees who have brought federal lawsuits against the business under the False Claims Act.
Bloomberg reported that TCS accounted for more than 6,500 of the 90,000 L-1A visas awarded by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) between October 2019 and September 2023. This figure is higher than the following six corporations combined.
Furthermore, the report stated that TCS had much fewer managers in its US business than the number of L-1A visas granted. It highlighted TCS's 2022 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) report, which indicated that the company had fewer than 600 executive or managerial jobs among its 31,000-person US workforce.
Refuting these allegations, TCS issued a statement saying, “TCS does not comment on ongoing litigation, however we strongly refute these inaccurate allegations by certain ex-employees, which have previously been dismissed by multiple courts and tribunals. TCS rigorously adheres to all US laws.”
