By: Ankita Kulkarni
July 9 2020
The lawsuit filed against Cisco Systems was for alleged caste-based discrimination at the workplace.
The lawsuit filed against Cisco Systems was for alleged caste-based discrimination at the workplace. California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) filed a lawsuit against Cisco Systems for harassing an engineer who was from a lower Indian caste but did not name the victim. It stated that he had been a principal engineer at Cisco’s San Jose headquarters since October 2015. Also, two managers have been accused of harassment for internally enforcing the caste hierarchy. However, Cisco spokesperson Robyn Blum stated that the company is committed to providing an inclusive workplace for all and would investigate the raised concerns to promote equality. According to the survey conducted by the Equality Labs, the civil rights group in 2018 found that 67 percent of South Asians in the U.S. felt that they were being treated unequally at their workplaces.