Infosys visa row case to go to court on 20 August

Infosys and an employee in the United States failed to reach agreement in a row over US business visas on Tuesday and the case is set to go to trial next month, the company said.

Jack Palmer, an Infosys employee in Montgomery, Alabama, says he was retaliated against by the company after following its whistleblower policy by pointing out what he said was the misuse of US B1 visas. B1 visas allow companies to send their employees to the United States for short-term business purposes.

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Palmer claimed that Infosys routinely brought Indian tech workers into the US on B-1 visas to do work that required an H1-B visa. Infosys has denied any wrongdoing.

The company's efforts to settle the case with Palmer also failed when a senior marketing executive from Infosys called Palmer a liar and a fortune hunter. Infosys refused to apologise when Palmer demanded a public apology.

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Several clients later demanded documentation of the visa status of all onsite employees of the company.

"Our sights are now set on presenting the facts of this case in open court on August 20," Infosys said in an emailed statement on Wednesday.

Following the anti-outsourcing tirade, Infosys announced that it will be hiring close to 2,000 people in and from the US by the end of 2012.

With inputs from Agencies