Tata, Infosys face U.S. probe for H-1B visa violations
Source: New York Times
The Department of Labor has opened an investigation into two India-based outsourcing companies for possible violations of rules for visas for foreign technology workers under contracts they held with an electric utility, Southern California Edison.
The power company recently laid off more than 500 technology workers. Many said they were made to train replacements who were immigrants on temporary visas, known as H-1B, brought in by the Indian firms, Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys.
Senators Richard Durbin of Illinois, a Democrat, and Jeff Sessions of Alabama, a Republican, announced the investigation after they were notified by the department.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/12/us/politics/outsourcing-companies-under-scrutiny-over-visas-for-technology-workers.html
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Labor Dept. plans H-1B probe -- one that could have an impact
Source: Computerworld
... In a joint statement, Durbin and Sessions said: "A number of U.S. employers, including some large, well-known, publicly-traded corporations, have laid off thousands of American workers and replaced them with H-1B visa holders. To add insult to injury, many of the replaced American employees report that they have been forced to train the foreign workers who are taking their jobs. That's just plain wrong and we'll continue to press the administration to help solve this problem."
... Ron Hira, a public policy professor at Howard University, and a researcher on offshore outsourcing, said if the Labor Department finds a violation in H-1B use, it has the authority to bar a company from the program for a certain period of time. Taking that kind of action "would send shockwaves through the whole outsourcing industry."
Conversely, said Hira, "if they find no violations, I think we would conclude that the program works contrary to everything that everybody claims" and that companies can replace U.S. workers with impunity without violating the law. "That would show that the program is riddled with loopholes," he said.
Read more: http://www.computerworld.com/article/2935554/it-careers/labor-dept-plans-h-1b-probe-one-that-could-have-an-impact.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
^H-^I^B
July 30, 2007 by the Los Angeles Times
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Clinton is successfully wooing wealthy Indian Americans, many of them business leaders with close ties to their native country and an interest in protecting outsourcing laws and expanding access to worker visas. Her campaign has held three fundraisers in the Indian American community recently, one of which raised close to $3 million, its sponsor told an Indian news organization.
But in Buffalo, the fruits of the Tata deal have been hard to find. The company, which called the arrangement Clinton's "brainchild," says "about 10" employees work here. Tata says most of the new employees were hired from around Buffalo. It declines to say whether any of the new jobs are held by foreigners, who make up 90% of Tata's 10,000-employee workforce in the United States.
snip
The Tata deal shows the difficulty of proving concrete benefits to U.S. workers from the visa system. Since 2003, the year its Buffalo office opened, Tata and its affiliates have sought permission to bring more than 1,600 foreign high-tech workers to the state, including at least 495 to the upstate region and 45 to Buffalo, according to government data. Tata has brought additional workers into the country under a second visa program whose numbers have not been disclosed.
Some U.S. worker organizations say Clinton cannot claim to support American workers if she is also helping Indian outsourcing companies and proposing more worker visas.
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http://www.commondreams.org/news/2007/07/30/clinton-woos-outsourcers-workers-fear
