In a new report that has just hit the internet, Latreecia Folkes spoke about how she received a letter of praise from her supervisor regarding her work on a new project, just six months into her time with the company. Strangely, Folkes was then told to train her replacement on the project, who turned out to be a worker from India. She expressed her thoughts about that, but she was still replaced.
Over the course of the next two years, Folkes said she was repeatedly rejected for opportunities for advancement as a project manager at Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp., one of the largest information-technology outsourcing firms in the world. Folkes said she was given a number of chances to apply for roles that would require her to relocate, which she couldn’t do because her mother was ill.
Eventually, the relationship between Folkes and the company grew strained. “I definitely knew it was because of me being an American, not being Indian, and also because I was black,” she said during an interview. She then filed an internal discrimination complaint in 2017. Three days later, Folkes was fired from the company.
In October 2026, a jury for a federal class-action lawsuit against Cognizant found the company intentionally discriminated against over 2,000 non-Indian employees between the years of 2013 and 2022. The verdict is similar to the findings of an investigation by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from 2020, which was focused on discrimination claims that were based on race and national origin.
Cognizant, which is based out of Teaneck, New Jersey, was found to have preferred workers from India, the vast majority of whom came to work for the firm thanks to skilled-worker visas known as H-1Bs. Folkes’ case is one in a recent wave of discrimination cases that have been brought against IT outsourcing companies, underscoring a growing concern that these firms are exploiting the employment-visa system.
The reason? In order to lock in cheaper and more malleable workers to help achieve greater levels of success. This has led to many American workers claiming they’ve been disadvantaged. Data confirms that the IT outsourcing industry makes extensive use of the H-1B visas and indicates that no other employer has obtained more of these individuals than Cognizant.
Jeff DeMarrais, spokesman for Cognizant, stated that the company is planning to appeal the verdict and completely disagrees with the EEOC finding, according to a report from Bloomberg. “Cognizant provides equal employment opportunities for all employees and does not tolerate discrimination in any form.” Bloomberg emailed DeMarrais some additional questions.
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“Like many consulting firms and other technology companies in the U.S., Cognizant utilizes the H-1B visa program to fill positions it cannot fill with available U.S. workers,” DeMarrais replied. The original intent of the program was to help U.S. employers find specialized talent, however, a decade of records from the U.S. Department of Labor demonstrates that outsourcing companies, including Cognizant, have used the visas to fill lower-level position instead of hiring American workers and bringing them into the company.
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