WTF?! A class action lawsuit against TSMC over allegations that the company discriminates against American workers while favoring those from Taiwan has been refiled to include over 30 plaintiffs. The suit claims that an anti-American bias exists at the semiconductor giant, and that non-Asian employees were called "stupid" or "lazy." One plaintiff said he heard Taiwanese employees say that "Black people are lazy and smell."
More than a dozen current and former TSMC Arizona employees filed the class-action lawsuit in 2024. It was refiled in June with 15 new plaintiffs.
The world's largest chipmaker is accused of bullying US workers, restricting their advancement, forcing them out of the company, and being biased toward hiring Taiwanese and Chinese nationals.
One of the plaintiffs, former TSMC senior technician Phillip Sterbinsky, said he was routinely yelled at by managers and called "stupid and lazy." He also heard racist remarks from Taiwanese workers. Sterbinsky was the only non-Asian remaining in his department when he left in 2024.
One plaintiff said that during a meeting, a Taiwanese frontline manager said, "I'm so embarrassed; Americans are lazy, they don't work hard enough, they don't know enough, and they don't know commitment."
Marcus Hernandez, another plaintiff, says he witnessed multiple safety violations at the Arizona plant, including managers pressuring him to turn on the chemical supply to the fab machines without wearing correct safety gear. The suit also claims that TSMC attempted to buy safety harnesses from Temu.
Part of the suit claims that TSMC favors hiring Chinese or Taiwanese workers at the Arizona site. Some advertised positions asked for proficiency in Mandarin, even though speaking the language wasn't a requirement for the jobs. It's also alleged that the higher-ranking Taiwanese workers regularly speak "Chenglish" so non-East Asian employees don't understand them, thereby preventing US staff from advancing at TSMC.
Invitations to job fairs were also in Chinese, and key meetings were held in Chinese or Mandarin in order to exclude non-East Asians, according to the suit.
Another complaint is that TSMC's HR team in Taiwan sends the US branch of the company resumes of vetted candidates who can work in the US. The US team then hires "these Asian/Taiwanese candidates without question, even if no open roles have been posted in the US." It's also claimed TSMC is hiring Taiwanese employees on visas as a way to reduce the number of union positions for US workers.
When asked why Taiwanese nationals had replaced Americans who had left TSMC, senior HR director Ted Chiang allegedly said it was because TSMC "is an Asian company."
There are also claims that one male US worker was repeatedly patted on the buttocks by older Taiwanese male engineers. The same person said he arrived at work in 2024 to "find a rubber chicken hanging from the ceiling over the desk of his Black colleague."
It was reported in June last year that US staff at TSMC Arizona were complaining about twelve-hour days, common weekend shifts, and a "brutal" work-life balance. There were also complaints about poor training, stress, heavy workloads, and a militaristic atmosphere. Mark Liu, TSMC's chairman at the time, said that the company does not ask US employees to conform to the same work culture standards as those observed in Taiwan, suggesting that American employees have it easier than those in the Asian nation.