Engineer fired from Parsons Corp. sues company, defense secretary

This story was updated Aug. 3, 2023, at 2:16 p.m. ET with a statement from Parsons Corp.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — An Indian American engineer says he was fired last year from his longtime job with a missile defense contractor’s Alabama office after he was heard speaking Hindi on a video call, according to a federal lawsuit he filed against the company.

Anil Varshney, 78, filed a civil rights lawsuit in the Northern District of Alabama against Parsons Corp. and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, whose department oversees the Missile Defense Agency, AL.com reported Monday.

“This case arises out of Defendants’ intentional acts to end Mr. Varshney’s highly distinguished engineering career because he is a 78-year-old Indian American,” the lawsuit reads. “Defendants abruptly terminated Mr. Varshney after one of his white colleagues overheard him speaking Hindi to his dying brother-in-law in India and falsely reported him for a violation of ‘security regulations.’ ”

Sharon Miller, an attorney representing the Virginia-based defense contractor, did not immediately respond to a phone message and email requesting comment. In a response filed with the court, Parsons denied wrongdoing and asked for the lawsuit’s dismissal.

The lawsuit goes on to say that Varshney, who worked at Parsons’ Huntsville office from July 2011 to October 2022, accepted a video call from his brother-in-law in an empty cubicle and spoke to him for about two minutes. The company then said he committed a security violation by using the FaceTime application at the classified worksite and fired him. He claims there was no policy prohibiting the call he accepted.

The firing blackballed him from future work with the Missile Defense Agency, the lawsuit alleges. He first began working for the federal agency in 2002 and continued in tandem with his employment at Parsons until 2022. In doing so, he achieved the American dream, the lawsuit says.

Bernadette Miller, Parson’s external communications director, told Defense News in an email that Varshney “was terminated after several security violations, including using Facetime on his personal phone at a controlled worksite. This series of documented improper conduct violates both Parsons and U.S. Government policy.”

However, when asked to provide further examples of security violations, Miller declined, citing “ongoing litigation.”

Parsons Corp. was ranked the 52nd largest defense company in the world in the 2022 Defense News Top 100 list .

Chris Martin with Defense News contributed to this report.

本文于美国东部时间 2023 年 8 月 3 日下午 2:16 更新，加入了 Parsons Corp. 的一份声明。

阿拉巴马州亨茨维尔——据一名印度裔美国工程师向一家导弹防御承包商提起的联邦诉讼称，去年他因在视频通话中说印地语而被该公司位于阿拉巴马州的办事处解雇。

据 AL.com 周一报道，78 岁的阿尼尔·瓦尔什尼在阿拉巴马州北区对帕森斯公司和美国国防部长劳埃德·奥斯汀提起民权诉讼，国防部负责监管导弹防御局。

诉讼书写道：“本案源于被告蓄意终结瓦尔什尼先生杰出的工程师生涯，仅仅因为他是一位78岁的印度裔美国人。被告在瓦尔什尼先生的一位白人同事无意中听到他用印地语与身在印度的垂危姐夫交谈后，谎称他违反了‘安全规定’，随后便突然解雇了他。”

代表这家位于弗吉尼亚州的国防承包商的律师莎伦·米勒没有立即回复记者的电话留言和电子邮件置评请求。帕森斯在提交给法院的答辩状中否认有任何不当行为，并要求驳回诉讼。

诉讼书中还提到，瓦尔什尼于2011年7月至2022年10月在帕森斯公司亨茨维尔办公室工作。一天，他在一个空荡荡的隔间里接听了姐夫打来的视频电话，通话时长约两分钟。之后，公司以他在机密工作场所使用FaceTime应用程序违反了安全规定为由将其解雇。瓦尔什尼则声称公司并没有任何规定禁止他接听电话。

诉讼称，此次解雇使他被导弹防御局列入黑名单，无法再为其效力。他于2002年开始为该联邦机构工作，并一直与在帕森斯公司的工作并行，直至2022年。诉讼称，他通过这种方式实现了美国梦。

帕森斯空军基地对外联络主任伯纳黛特·米勒在给《防务新闻》的电子邮件中表示，瓦尔什尼“因多次违反安全规定而被解雇，其中包括在受控工作场所使用私人手机进行 FaceTime 通话。这一系列有据可查的不当行为违反了帕森斯空军基地和美国政府的政策。”

然而，当被要求提供更多安全违规行为的例子时，米勒以“诉讼正在进行中”为由拒绝提供。

在 2022 年《防务新闻》评选的全球百强国防公司榜单中，帕森斯公司位列第 52 位。

《防务新闻》的克里斯·马丁对本报道亦有贡献。