Former employee sues Cognizant for alleged sexual harassment: Report

A former employee of Teaneck, New Jersey headquartered Cognizant has reportedly filed a lawsuit seeking trial against the company in the court of Middle District of Florida.

The complaint has named two executives for alleged sexual harassment as well as discrimination for reporting of said harassment, according to an Economic Times report, citing the lawsuit.

The plaintiff, a woman of Hispanic origin and hired by information technology (IT) services major Cognizant in 2017. She allegedly faced sexual harassment between 2018 and 2019 by two executives.

The lawsuit added that the former employee had filed an internal complaint with the human resources and compliance departments, after which the matter was not resolved and the complainant faced retaliatory actions, the report said.

“Plaintiff contends that her supervisors sexually harassed her in the workplace, treated her differently than similarly situated employees, and retaliated against her when she reported the discrimination… Plaintiff timely filed a complaint alleging retaliation by defendant Cognizant and exhausted all the administrative remedies,” the lawsuit was quoted as saying.

Additionally, the complainant reportedly faced “sexually explicit language” and “unwelcome sexual advances” at the workplace. The lawsuit also alleges that Cognizant has “a history of sexually assaulting and sexually abusing females in the workplace.”

Cognizant did not respond to TechCircle’s request for comment on the report.