Thread: Indian Company Bans Christmas for American Workers

Teased About Thanksgiving, Ex-Employee Says Bosses Are Turkeys

American citizen, originally from India, fights for right to celebrate traditional holiday

By OWEN THOMAS
Updated 12:07 PM PST, Fri, Dec 4, 2009

Who says you can't celebrate Thanksgiving?

Promila Awasthi, a Silicon Valley computer consultant, says her bosses at Infosys did.

In a lawsuit filed Monday in Alameda County Superior Court, Awasthi, an India-born American citizen, says her bosses at Infosys's Fremont ,Calif. office mocked her for observing American holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas and refused to pay her overtime according to California law.

The lawsuit is potentially explosive for Infosys, one of a host of India-based information-technology outsourcing firms which take over computing tasks from other companies.

Infosys has been pushing to expand its presence in the United States, both to blunt the political backlash from moving jobs overseas and to gain a commercial advantage by hiring local sales and marketing executives better equipped to take business from the slick sales forces of HP and IBM.

Contrast Infosys's global ambitions with the allegations in Awasthi's lawsuit. She hardly paints a culturally sensitive picture of her former company, where she worked from February to November 2008, at which point she claims "intolerable" working conditions forced her to quit. Here are highlights from the lawsuit:

Infosys management routinely disparaged Americans, including Mrs. Awasthi, as not having "family values," and stated that layoffs in America are good because the jobs will be outsourced.

Infosys management ridiculed Mrs. Awasthi for celebrating the American holiday of Thanksgiving, telling her that she should not celebrate Thanksgiving because she is Indian, and that therefore she must work on Thanksgiving Day.

Infosys management ridiculed Mrs. Awasthi’s children for celebrating Thanksgiving, and called them "ABCD" short for "American-Born Confused Desi," and "IBCD" short for "Indian-Born Confused Desi," insulting terms used to criticize people of Indian ancestry who are Americanized.

Infosys management ridiculed Mrs. Awasthi for celebrating Christmas, saying that "we" do not celebrate Christmas, and that she should not celebrate Christmas. Infosys management repeatedly discussed the quality of Mrs. Awasthi's work by explicitly commenting on their expectations for “a woman your age."

A spokesman for Infosys, Patrick McLaughlin, did not respond to an emailed request for comment on the lawsuit.

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/tech/Tea ... 26142.html

Sue them, fine them, shut them down, send them back to India. We'll do our own "InfoSys".

with the kind of remarks they make it is time to kick them ouot of the country too.........

they would not even have those jobs if it wasn't for the American enginuity and progress in technologies to begin with

Exactly.



Take it back America, Take. It. Back.

Isn't DIVERSITY wonderful?


American leftist fools are the only ones in the world who believe in diversity.

These people are hostile to the people of the United States and here they are on American soil working to throw our people out of work while mocking our holidays.

Enough! Time to fight back and kick these people out.

W

R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

If they cant respect our country and our culture, then they dont belong here.

Sounds like they use a good old fashioned American SENSOERED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Somebody should remind whom infosys owes their sucess too, American Investors and Technology. When India and its inhabitants were discovering the joys of the modern toilet, America was puting Probes into Interstellar Space. Also they were concidered a Non-Official enemy of the United States because they provided warm water ports for the Soviets. So if they don't like American Culture or Tradtions or Christanity, they can fly back to that rathole of a country and practice there hindu cast system, kill infant female babies and deal with the still prevalent diseases such as the Bubonic plauge, cholera and others the west wiped out long ago. There's the door, don't let it hit you in the azz on the way out.