L-1 Hearing Aftermath Part 4

Date: Tuesday, February 10, 2004 7:08 PM

JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

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The L-1 hearing didn't get much media play in the U.S. but in India it's major news. They all took special notice of the fact that Sona Shah, a woman of Indian descent, testified against L-1.

There is also quite a lot of hand-wringing from bodyshops like Infosys and Wipro. They claim that they follow the law and don't break the rules. What they didn't mention is the fact that they are also following the laws in India which allow discrimination on the basis of national origin, age, gender, and caste. When they come to the United States they don't follow our laws for equal opportunity because they don't hire American citizens - even if they are of Indian ancestry!

Infosys CEO Nandan Nilekani claims that they comply with the spirit of the law. That is a falsity that puts them in the same league as their U.S. counterparts who routinely violate the "spirit of the law". That spirit that Niledani refers to requires employers to only use H-1B or
L-1 unless there are no American workers available, and if they do import workers they don't underpay them. Unfortunately the letter of the law is more of a problem since it allows this exploitation to occur.

Bodyshops routinely break the visa rules but that doesn't mean they are worse than U.S. corporations such as Intel, Microsoft, Motorola etc.
The H-1B and L-1 visas need to be either banned or serious reforms need to be done to the letter of the law.

These articles also stress the fact that the AFL-CIO blasted the bodyshops for their abuse of L-1 visas. I don't think Mike Gildea, the union spokesman who testified, singled bodyshops out any more than the U.S. companies that do the same thing and that use the cheap labor from the bodyshops. Gildea was equally critical of the massive amount of offshoring that is going on.

In recent years the unions have been silent on nonimmigrant visas so it's encouraging to see them back on our side. Perhaps they can mobilize a coalition of white and blue collar workers to fight the job destruction before it's too late.

http://www.deepikaglobal.com/ENG5_sub.asp?ccode=ENG5&newscode=40078

Infy, Wipro deny abusing US L1 visa scheme

Bangalore, Feb 5 (UNI) Bangalore-based information technology companies Infosys and Wipro have denied accusations by US labour organisations that they are abusing the L1 visa scheme.

''We fully comply with visa statutes and regulations, both in letter and in spirit. Infosys continues to work with the governments and consulates of the countries in which it operates in order to ensure that it fully understands and correctly interprets the immigration regulations,'' Infosys President and Chief Executive Officer Nandan Nilekani said in a statement here today.

Media reports originating from the US have quoted officials of the AFL-CIO labour federation, said to be the largest in the country, as telling the international relations committee of the House of Representatives that Indian IT majors Infosys, Wipro and TCS were ''abusing'' the L1 scheme and bringing in low-cost manpower to take over American jobs.

''L1 visa regulations stipulate that only employees with specialised knowledge or holding managerial/executive positions can file an application. Infosys adheres to this regulation and, more importantly, does not differentiate between H1 and L1 pay scales, although not legally mandated,'' the statement said.

''We are primarily an H1 dependent company, with 65-70 per cent of our employees in the US holding H1-B visas. Most of our employees stay in the US for the duration of the project, which is typically 1-2 years, and return to the home country,'' it added.

A Wipro spokesperson said, ''We believe we are in total compliance with the requirement of the law relating to visas. Hence, the question of abuse does not arise.'' The recent weeks have seen a spurt in anti-offshoring sentiments, mostly aimed at Indian companies, by politicians and labour unions in the United States .

Recently, the US Senate approved a law barring the outsourcing of Government contracts by American companies to firms outside the country.

http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=28200#compstory

'Wipro, TCS, Infosys abusing L-1 visas'

Press Trust of India

Washington, February 5: Amid growing resentment in the US against outsourcing, labour organisations here have accused Indian IT majors Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys technologies of "abusing"
the L-1 visa programme to bring in cheap manpower to take over American jobs.

These companies were acting as "bodyshops", bringing in foreign workers through the L-1 system and then subcontracting them out to other businesses, Michael W. Gildea, executive director of the Department for Professional Employees, Afl-Cio, Americas largest labour federation, told the House International Relations Committee on Wednesday.

Some of these firms and others like them had a "troubled history" under the H-1B visa programme. "Yet, these firms are now among the biggest users of the L-1 programme supplying Indian IT talent to a who's who of the fortune 500 corporations," he said.

The L visa programme is designed to bring management executives and experts to companies owned by their employers with operations in the US.

L-1 visas are for "intra company transferees" and L-2 visas are granted to their spouses and dependent children.

Dan Stein, executive director for American immigration reform, told the committee that that unlike applicants for other categories of temporary employment visas, L visa holders need not maintain a legal intent to return home.

This makes it easier for them to get on track to petition for permanent resident status "and makes something of a mockery of the idea that this is a temporary visa programme," he said.

Quoting a Business Week report last year, Stein said Siemens Technologies laid off a dozen high-tech workers in their lake Mary, Florida, office and replaced them with foreign workers supplied by TCS working on L-1 visas.

These foreign workers, on an average, are paid about one- third of what the laid-off Americans earned, he claimed.

Sun Microsystems has said it does not give American workers preference in its hiring and layoff decisions and large banks, like bank of America, have been quite open about their use of this programme to employ less expensive foreign workers, Stein added.

Gildea said that according to the San Francisco Chronicle, TCS acknowledged it paid some of the replacement programmers "only USD 36,000 a year - below the average local range of USD 37,794 to 69,000 for a basic programmer."

This was "well below the compensation levels paid to those US employees who were laid off as a result of their deal with Tata Consultancy Services," he added.

India-born Sona Shah, who came to the US at the age of three and is an American citizen, told the committee that the L-1 programme replaces American workers like her with lower paid visa-holders and they too were victimised.

"In countries like India, the opportunities for abuse written into these visa programmes have given rise to a cottage industry called visa brokerage.

"Indian visa brokers either take money up front and/or force the potential L-1 (visa holder) into unlawful contracts. By reforming these visa programmes you can prevent exploitation of both US citizens and guest workers," she said.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/2004/Feb/06/181_561945,00050001.htm

After outsourcing, US turns attention to L-1 visas S Rajagopalan Washington, February 5

After outsourcing, the US Congress is now taking a hard look at the L-1 visa programme amid charges by American labour unions that top Indian IT firms are "abusing" the programme and acting as "bodyshops" to bring in cheap labour.

At an important hearing of the House International Relations Committee on Wednesday, serious charges were hurled at Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys, who are among the biggest users of the L-1 visa programme.

The hearing assumes significance in the light of a slew of bills introduced in the US Congress in recent months to drastically slash the cap on L-1 visas and impose stringent restrictions on its use. The bills are expected to be taken up in the coming months in this crucial election year.

Henry Hyde, chairman of the House panel, set the tone for the hearing by posing a series of questions: Have we been lax in protecting the jobs of our American workers? Have we been lax in visa issuances, allowing these numbers (of L-1 visas) to skyrocket with minimum supervision or control?

Hyde said it was "unconscionable" that American workers have been forced to train their foreign guest worker replacements. This, he suggested, pointed to a laxity in "off-shoring" of American jobs, often facilitated by "in-shore" training first given to L-1 visa holders right here in the US.

The Federation of American Immigration Reform (FAIR), which is campaigning against L-1 visas, bitterly complained about the extraordinary influx of foreign workers under the programme: from
75,315 workers in 1992 to 328,480 in 2001.

Leading the charge against the Indian firms, Michael W Gildea, a top official of AFL-CIO, America's largest labour federation, characterised Wipro, TCS and Infosys as "bodyshops" bringing in cheap foreign labour and subcontracting them to other businesses.

"Some of these firms and others like them have had a troubled history under the H-1B programme. In fact, prior legislation relating to H-1B has specifically addressed abusive practices by them such as benching.

Yet these firms are now among the biggest users of the L-1 programme supplying Indian IT talent to a who's who of the Fortune 500 corporations," Gildea commented.

FAIR executive director Dan Stein, listing the L-1 visa loopholes, said that unlike other categories of temporary job visas, L-1 visa holders need not maintain a legal intent to return home. It was thus easy for them to get on track to petition for permanent resident status and "make a mockery of this temporary visa programme".

At the hearing, two American workers, one of them an Indian American, attacked the visa programme that enabled their companies to replace them by L-1 visa holders from India and other countries coming to the US on much lower salaries.

Sona Shah, who migrated from India to the US at the age of three and is now an American citizen, said the L-1 programme that replaces American workers like is full of opportunities for abuse. These loopholes have only "given rise to a cottage industry called visa brokerage in countries like India". She was more severe on the corporate abuse of the programme.

But Shah was more severe on the US companies. "This is not an issue of Indians vs. Americans or foreigners vs Americans. I've witnessed attempts to pit the two groups of employees against each other: it's a divide and conquer tactic. This is not about being anti-Indian or anti-immigration. This is about reforming corporate abuse of unregulated visa programs that are out of control," she said.

The only support for the L-1 visa programme at the hearing came from an industry representative: Harris Miller, president of Information Technology Association of America. He termed it a successful programme that has helped US companies to maximise their access to worldwide talent.

Miller, opposing any fundamental changes in the L-1 programme, said ways could be found to improve its implementation. "While no system based on a myriad of factors is perfect, we can improve the existing administrative ambiguities in the L-1 program," he said.

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