EEOC Sues HCL America for Age and National Origin Discrimination

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – HCL America, Inc. violated federal law when it refused to hire a qualified, 61-year-old Indian job applicant for a sales director position based on his age and national origin, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit filed today.

According to the lawsuit, HCL America interviewed an applicant for a sales director position in July 2021. Although the applicant met the job qualifications, the hiring manager emailed the hiring team after the interview, described the applicant as a “good guy, but he is too old,” and then asked recruiters to send him applications from non-Indian candidates. Emails between recruiters and managers ranking as high as HCL vice presidents revealed that HCL set aside applications from qualified Indian applicants and discussed relaxing the job qualifications while searching for non-Indian candidates. HCL hired a younger, non-Indian candidate for the sales director position.    

Such alleged conduct violated both the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, which prohibit respectively age and national origin discrimination. The EEOC filed suit (EEOC v. HCL America, Inc., Case No. 5:24-CV-04694) in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its administrative conciliation process.

“Job applicants must be assessed based on their qualifications for the position and not their age or national origin” said Nancy Sienko, district director of the San Francisco District Office.

Regional Attorney Roberta Steele said, “The EEOC is committed to enforcing anti-discrimination laws that protect applicants from being rejected based on their national origin or because they are 40 years old or more.”

For more information on age discrimination, please visit https://www.eeoc.gov/age-discrimination.  For more information on national origin discrimination, please visit https://www.eeoc.gov/national-origin-discrimination.

The EEOC’s San Francisco District Office has jurisdiction over Northern California, Northern Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Idaho and Montana. The San Francisco District has offices in Oakland, San Francisco, San Jose and Seattle.

The EEOC prevents and remedies unlawful employment discrimination and advances equal opportunity for all. More information is available at www.eeoc.gov. Stay connected with the latest EEOC news by subscribing to our email updates.