MANHASSET, NY — Former employees have filed two lawsuits against Sun Microsystems Inc. alleging discrimination on the basis of race and national origin.
The suits describe an alleged bias at Sun where young, East Indians on work visas such as H-1B and F-1 were preferred over U.S. nationals because they were cheaper and would work longer hours.
Walter Kruz filed suit in the Superior court of the State of California, County of Santa Clara, March 17th on behalf of himself and "all others similarly situated" alleging violation of California's Fair Housing and Employment Act and the state's Unfair Competition Law.
The 52-year-old former software engineering manager worked at Sun from May 2000 until November 2001, when he was laid off in a reduction in force that impacted 2,500 employees in the U.S.
His suit alleges that he, a Caucasian and U.S. national, was part of a group disparately impacted by the Sun layoff while few East Indians or East Indian visa holders lost their jobs.
The complaint describes how Sun planned to reduce its labor costs in 2001 by applying for and utilizing H-1B and F-1 student visas to replace experienced, higher paid and older U.S. national workers with East Indians.
Similar claims are made in a federal complaint filed January 15th in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado on behalf of — Gail Matthews, a 43-year old former manager who worked for Sun from April 1989 until November 2001, and other non-California residents impacted by the layoff.
Matthews' suit claims discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The plaintiffs seek compensatory damages for monies lost by being wrongfully terminated and in the California case, — which alleges a purposeful discrimination — Kruz seeks punitive damages as well.
The plaintiffs' attorney James A. Caputo of Spector, Roseman & Kodroff (San Diego) called the cases "an attempt to right a wrong impacted [enacted, committed] by Sun" and explained they are not a per say indictment of H-1B, but " an abuse of that process."
A Sun spokeswoman said Sun is aware of the Kruz case and that prior charges that Sun has abused the H-1B program or discriminated against U.S. engineers "have also been found by agencies of the U.S. government to be without merit."
She said: "We are very confident that Sun will be vindicated again when given the opportunity to defend itself in court."
Norm Matloff, a computer science professor at University of California at Davis and an activist on immigration reform, regards Sun as a "heavy abuser of H-1B."
He pointed out that Sun has also been shown to misinform Congress on its use of H-1B.
"When Sun testified to the U.S. Senate in 1998, it repeatedly stated that it only employs H-1Bs if no qualified Americans are available to do the job," noted Matloff.
In testimony on the High Tech Worker Shortage and Immigration Policy before the committee on the Judiciary, U.S. Senate, in Feb 1998, Kenneth Alvares, vice president, human resources, corporate officer at Sun said: "Sun gives employment priority to U.S. workers, but the small part of our total U.S. workforce comprised of foreign-born employees, such as those with temporary H-1B visas, are a critical element of our success."
However, Matloff noted that today Sun admits to laying off Americans while retaining H-1Bs in the same jobs: "Those laid-off Americans were qualified to do the work, by definition — they had been doing the work!"
In fact, Matloff said that in a hearing involving discrimination complaints by former Sun contractor Guy Santiglia, Sun said that it also does not give priority in hiring to Americans.
"So all those claims by Sun that they employ H-1Bs only when no Americans are available were false," said Matloff.
