Computer Science Corporation, the world’s fourth largest IT services supplier, has been accused of paying its Indian-born contract staff working in Denmark less than the country’s immigration laws demand.

The accusation comes from PROSA, a Danish IT workers’ trade union. PROSA says that CSC’s 900 Indian staff resident in Denmark have been granted visas under the country’s ‘salary amount rule’, which stipulates that immigrant workers must receive at least €50,000 annual pay.

PROSA alleges that CSC’s Indian workers in Denmark are, in fact, paid significantly less. It allegedly makes up the difference by stating employee salaries inclusive of tax, PROSA says, even though its Indian workers do not pay tax under an agreement between the Indian and Danish governments.

In a statement, union secretary Hanne Lykke Jespersen alleged that the Danish immigration authorities are aware of this arrangement. “Immigration Services has either by mistake or with their eyes open assisted employers to cheat Indian IT professionals, since they appear to have approved this tax circus both in CSC and in several other Danish companies,” she said.

Jespersen described CSC Denmark’s treatment of its Indian staff as ‘slave-like’, and said that it was also unfair on Danish IT workers who have allegedly been undercut by the outsourcing company.  

CSC has yet to respond to the allegations.

The company is just the latest IT supplier to face union disputes in the wake of the recession. Only today, a two-day strike by Hewlett-Packard employees was called off at the last minute. Employees are protesting about a pay freeze that has remained in place even though the company’s revenue has grown.

Earlier this year, the BBC came under fire for allowing Siemens to pay its contract staff less than the broadcaster’s agreed minimum wage. And in January, Fujitsu was accused by trade union Unite of making a disproportionate number of female, part-time and ethnic minority workers redundant.