Cognizant- Importing Foreign Workers

From: Robert Sterling (https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1873174358535110953#google_vignette)

"But what about the other large applicants here, which aren’t as familiar (Cognizant, Infosys, Tata)?"

As it turns out, these are ALL Indian companies that import H-1B tech workers en masse:

Cognizant (93k)

Infosys (61k)

Tata Consultancy Services (60k)

Wipro

Capgemini

HCL

Compunnel

Tech Mahindra

Mphasis

"These aren’t American companies that needed international talent to fill critical roles. They’re foreign companies that appear to have been founded to place overseas tech workers into US companies as contractors."

Cognizant doesn't come right out and say Indian but they were founded there.

Cognizant calls itself "technology solutions" but the main purpose appears to be to fill technology rolls with Indians.

From Wiki:

Wage theft and H-1B visa violations

Cognizant leads the ranks of companies receiving H-1B visas from the United States. The company has been steadily increasing its U.S. work force. In January 2011, the company announced plans to expand its U.S. delivery centers, including a new 1,000-person (0.4% of worldwide workforce) facility in Phoenix, Arizona.[162]

In 2009, an investigation by the US Department of Labor (DoL) found Cognizant in violation of the H-1B provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Administrative Act. The DoL discovered that the company had stolen wages and benefits from 67 of its workers, for which they demanded they repay $509,607 in back wages. Joseph Petrecca, the director of the Wage and Hour Division's Northern New Jersey District Office noted that the company took immediate steps to correct the violations, saying the "level of cooperation sets a standard for others in the industry."[163]

In 2016, the company was the subject of a lawsuit by workers for Walt Disney World who said workers from India were brought into the United States on H-1B visas in order to replace them.[164] However, in October 2016, federal Judge Gregory A. Presnel of the United States District Court in Orlando dismissed the lawsuits, stating "none of the allegedly false statements put at issue in the complaint are adequate."[165]

Cognizant was also required to pay $5.7 million in back pay and fines in a U.S. District Court ruling for a class action lawsuit. The lawsuit claimed that Cognizant did not provide quality assurance analysts the full value of their overtime pay.[166]

"In 2018, a race discrimination suit was brought: "Three former employees claim they were forced out of their jobs and replaced with 'less qualified' Indians after being poorly treated by their Indian supervisors and colleagues, given unjustifiably low performance ratings and denied promotions." Cognizant said it was "national origin" and not race.[152] In a 2024 retrial, a jury found the company had discriminated and should pay damages[153] (Bloomberg needs subscription to access)"

"On July 1, 2023, Cognizant acquired the Microsoft/Nuance Dragon Ambient eXperience US medical scribes division. On January 8, 2024, Cognizant laid off over 700 of those US medical scribes and managers to migrate the US hospital accounts to their Indian scribes division in a rolling/tiered fashion with termination dates at the end of February and March 2024. In addition, approximately 40 of the US employees (thus not triggering the WARN Act, which stipulates a minimum of 50 employees) were terminated immediately on January 8, 2024, with only 1 month's severance pay instead of the 2 months' severance that would have been required by the WARN Act."