The suit charged that TCS 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 the company and by taking unauthorised deductions from employees’ paychecks

Moneylife Digital Team

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Asia’s largest software-services provider, has agreed to pay $29.8 million to settle a wage dispute in California with workers who were sent to work in the US from India.

The complaint was filed by non-US employees Gopi Vedachalam and Kangana Beri, who were sent to the US to work on projects.

The suit charged that TCS 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 the company and by taking unauthorised deductions from employees’ paychecks.

Terms of the settlement are described in a 21st February filing with US District judge Claudia Wilken in Oakland, California. The judge in April certified the case as a class, or group, lawsuit for all non-US citizens employed by the company in California from 14 February 2002 to 30 June 2005.