California: Cisco Gets Sued For Caste Discrimination

The worldwide leader in IT and networking, Cisco have been sued by the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) in California. Also, Cisco’s ex-managers were sued over alleging caste discrimination at the workplace against a Dalit Indian-American employee. DFEH is a state agency with enforcing California’s civil rights law.

Coming into details, the lawsuit alleges that former Cisco engineering managers Sundar Iyer and Ramana Kompella discriminated and harassed an employee (chosen to be anonymous) in the office as he belongs to a Dalit community. A federal lawsuit was filed on June 30 by DFEH under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended (Title VII), and California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), against Cisco Systems, Inc (Cisco) and two managers for discrimination, harassment, and retaliation.

The employee has been discriminated in such a way that his payscale was comparatively less and offered no opportunities. Also, the lawsuit stated – “other inferior terms and conditions of employment because of his religion, ancestry, national origin/ethnicity, and race/colour.” And, it further came to notice that the Dalit employee reported these ex-managers to HR in 2016 over “outing him as a Dalit” to other colleagues. Later, the company reportedly alienated the employee, allegedly rejected opportunities making him miss two promotions.

The employee and the two managers worked at Cisco’s headquarters in San Jose, But, such incident is not a novelty as back in 2018, the survey showed 67% of Dalits in the US reported being treated unfairly at their American workplaces. “It is unacceptable for workplace conditions and opportunities to be determined by a hereditary social status determined by birth. Employers must be prepared to prevent, remedy, and deter unlawful conduct against workers because of caste,” DFEH Director Kevin Kish said in a statement.