US court permits class action lawsuit against TCS

A US District Court in California has approved a class action suit in a case charging Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) with systematic violations of the rights of its non-US citizen workers in the US.

The lawsuit filed in 2006 by two of its former employees, Gopi Vedachalam and Kangana Beri, alleges that Tata unjustly enriched itself by requiring all of its non-US-citizen employees to endorse and sign over their federal and state tax refund checks to Tata and by taking unauthorised deductions from employee's paychecks.

However, TCS termed it as a procedural matter, saying the order of the court does not address the merit of the case.

"We have received the order of the US District Court. This is an order only on one procedural matter and does not address the merits of this case. TCS continues to believe that when this matter concludes, the court will find that the plaintiff's claims are without any merit," a TCS spokesman said after the class action lawsuit permission order issued by the US District Court Judge Claudia Wilken found that the plaintiffs satisfied the legal requirements for a class action.

"I am very happy with the Court's decision today.  It means that my former colleagues and I are one step closer to holding Tata accountable," Vedachalam said in a statement issued by his attorney.