Indian American Sues Alabama Company Alleging Wrongful Termination For Speaking Hindi on a Call at Work
- Anil Varshney, 78, a longtime Senior Systems Engineer with Parsons Corporation in Huntsville, was speaking to his “dying brother-in-law in India,” when a co-worker falsely reported him for a violation of security regulations.
An Indian American engineer has sued an Alabama company for wrongful termination. Anil Varshney, 78, a longtime Senior Systems Engineer with Parsons Corporation, has filed a federal lawsuit accusing the Huntsville-based missile defense contractor, alleging “systemic discriminatory actions,” the Associated Press reported. He says the company allegedly fired him last year from his long-time job after he was heard speaking Hindi on the telephone.
Varshney says in the lawsuit that he was talking to his “dying brother-in-law in India,” when a white co-worker heard him speak in Hindi. The co-worker “falsely reported [Varshney] for a violation of ‘security regulations’,” states the lawsuit, which was filed in June in the Northern District of Alabama, according to AP. Varshney accepted the call in an empty cubicle and spoke to him for approximately two minutes,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit says that Varshney was “fired” for committing “a serious security violation,” despite there being no policy prohibiting the call, according to a report in The Birmingham News. He has additionally accused the company of “blackmailing him from future [Missile Defense Agency] work, effectively ending his career and life of service to MDA and the United States government,” the report said.
Varshney has worked at Parsons since July 2011. Before that, he was a senior Systems Engineer at Intella Inc., and Teledyne Solutions, Inc., both in the Huntsville area.
Once lauded as “Contractor of the Year” in systems engineering, Varshney received a letter of MDA recommendation “for saving $5 million on the ground-based missile defense program,” the lawsuit notes, according to The Birmingham News.“I love this great country and state, which I have called my home for over 50 years,” Varshney said in a statement to the Daily. “I have devoted my life to strengthening the defense of this nation. Our kids, all proud American citizens raised in Alabama, are Rhodes Scholars, senior corporate executives, and physicians.”
Meanwhile, in a response filed with the court on July 24, Parsons denied it engaged in any of the wrongdoing alleged by Varshney, and that he is entitled to any relief whatsoever,” The Birmingham News reported. The company also asked for the suit’s dismissal with prejudice, and that Varshney pays its attorneys’ fees and costs, the report said.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Varshney has worked at Parsons since July 2011. Before that, he was a senior Systems Engineer at Intella Inc., and Teledyne Solutions, Inc., both in the Huntsville area.
At Parsons, he provided “engineering support for the development of integrated and layered missile defense systems which defend the United States and allied partner forces against ballistic missile threats,” The Birmingham News said, citing the lawsuit. “He provided capability requirements analysis, system verification, and specification development for defense weapons systems and components,” the suit continues, “worked to identify and satisfy customer needs; and resolved issues across organization boundaries.”
However, despite his qualifications and experience, Varshney, who “speaks with a strong accent, was the target of ethnically charged and ageist comments and actions multiple times by younger, white employees of defendants,” the suit alleges.
Varshney immigrated to the United States in 1968 for further studies, according to the lawsuit. After graduating with an MSIE in Industrial and System Engineering from Oklahoma State University, he settled in Huntsville. Shahsi Varshney has worked at NASA since 1989. Varshney has a BSME in Mechanical Engineering from Benares Hindu University.