A judicial court in the US has approved a class action suit against Tata Consultancy Services, which accuses the Indian IT services giant of keeping the US tax refunds of Indian employees working abroad.

The documents released by the court show that people from countries other than US who were employed in the United States from February 14, 2002 to June 30, 2005, and those who were sent to the US for work by the company after January 1, 2002, will be allowed to become a part of the suit against the company.

According to the Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein law firm, which is representing the plaintiffs, the suit argues that company forced its Indian employees to sign away their US tax refunds to the company.

They also said that the company did not pay its employees the amount that they were promised before they came to the country.

Kelly Dermody, co-lead class counsel said, “More than ten thousand current and former Indian nationals working for Tata in America now may have their day in court. We look forward to demonstrating at trial that Tata breached the standard employment contract with these employees and violated California labor laws.”

He also said that the plaintiffs are seeking compensation and damages for the current as well as former employees who were not paid fairly by the company.