TCS settles class action suit, pays $29.75 mn

TCS agrees to pay $29.75 million to settle a class-action law suit in the United States, brought by two former non-US-citizen employees even as it denies any wrongdoing.

Tata Consultancy Services, India's top software services provider, said it agreed to pay $29.75 million to settle a class-action law suit in the United States, brought by two former non-US-citizen employees.

"The settlement is made without admitting any wrong doing by TCS," the company said in a statement to the National Stock Exchange in Mumbai on Friday. It is subject to court approvals.

The former employees had accused TCS in 2006 of forcing all non-US-citizen workers to sign over their US federal and state tax refund cheques to the company. Tata also deducted their Indian wages from their compensation, the suit alleged. The case was granted class-action status in April 2012 by California federal judge Claudia Wilken. TCS had denied the allegations.

The case is Vedachalam vs Tata America International Corporation et al, US District Court, Northern District of California (Oakland), No. 06-963.