Apple is facing a bias case against an Indian engineer

Apple Inc. has lost the first round of a discrimination lawsuit filed in the United States by a female Indian engineer who says two of her managers — one from that country and one from Pakistan — treated her as they do in their own countries: as a subordinate.
A woman’s lawsuit in California state court is the latest to allege workplace bias in Silicon Valley, focusing on the cultural bias of some tech workers from South Asia. Cisco Systems Inc. is fighting a lawsuit brought by a California civil rights agency alleging discrimination against members of India’s so-called lower castes known as Dalits.

Anita Narayani Schulz is part of the Sindhi minority — she is a Hindu, from her father’s roots in the Indus region of what is now Pakistan. Her complaint alleges that her superiors and direct managers, both men, consistently excluded her from meetings while inviting her male colleagues, criticized her, micromanaged her work, and deprived her of bonuses despite positive performance evaluations and significant team contributions.

Schulz claims that managers’ hostility reflects discrimination based on sexism, racism, religious prejudice and national origin. Sindhi Hindu nationalism is known for “its technical genius” and gender equality, she says, which “exacerbated the discriminatory behavior of administrators.”

In an interim order Wednesday, Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Sunil R. Kulkarni denied Apple’s request to dismiss the case. While not ruling on the merits of the case, Kulkarni said Schulz adequately supported her legal claims. Apple argued that its claims were not specific enough and were based on stereotypes.

But the judge denied Schulz’s request to represent a group of female Apple employees who have faced job discrimination over the past four years. He agreed with Apple that it had not shown an example of discrimination that could be applied to a wider group.