HCL America to Pay $495,000 in EEOC Age and National Origin Discrimination Lawsuit

SAN FRANCISCO – A multinational technology consulting company doing business in the United States as HCL America, Inc., and headquartered in Santa Clara, California, agreed to pay $495,000 and provide injunctive relief to settle a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in August 2024, the federal agency announced today.

According to the suit, in July 2021, HCL America rejected a qualified 62-year-old job applicant of Indian descent, who applied for a sales director position, stating in an email to the hiring team that he was “too old,” and to instead “explore diverse candidates.” The suit alleged that HCL categorized candidates as “diverse” if they were non-Indian, female, or both. In subsequent email exchanges with its recruiter, the company reiterated its request for diverse candidates for the position, discussed goals to identify candidates based on gender and ethnicity, and noted its willingness to dispense with some of the relevant qualifications, including sales or IT experience, depending on the candidate, according to the lawsuit.

A younger, non-Indian candidate was hired for the position.

“This suit illustrates how discriminatory hiring in the name of achieving diversity can harm any applicant,” said EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas. “The EEOC will continue to act to stop employers from unlawfully hiring based on protected characteristics.”

“Hiring must be based on merit — not age or national origin — as the ADEA and Title VII requires,” said Christopher Green, district director for the EEOC’s San Francisco District Office. “The EEOC is committed to evenhanded enforcement of anti-discrimination laws and will hold employers accountable when they deny applicants opportunities because of their age or national origin.”

The suit charged the company with violating both the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination based on national origin. 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.

Under the two-year consent decree approved by the court on April 2, 2026, HCL America will pay $495,000 to the applicant, and work with a third-party consultant to review and/or revise its policies and procedures concerning discrimination based on age and national origin. The company will also train its recruitment personnel, managers and supervisors.

“Employers must ensure they are in compliance with federal law and provide training for hiring managers and recruiters to understand their responsibilities to prevent age and national origin discrimination,” said Roberta L. Steele, regional attorney for the EEOC’s San Francisco District Office. “We encourage all employers to adopt policies and provide training to prevent discrimination.”

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.

Last year, the published a resource on national origin bias, which can include customer preferences and stereotypes.

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

The EEOC is the sole federal agency authorized to investigate and litigate against businesses and other private sector employers for violations of federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. For public sector employers, the EEOC shares jurisdiction with the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. The EEOC also is responsible for coordinating the federal government’s employment antidiscrimination effort. More information about the EEOC is available at www.eeoc.gov.