Now it's an onshore job threat

Date: Wednesday, February 18, 2004 1:41 PM

JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

www.ZaZona.com

It's very encouraging that the San Jose Mercury News has an editorial.
They have had a long history of favoring H-1B and L-1. Unfortunately
the damage done by H-1B visas is downplayed:

But abuse of the L-1 visa by body shops presents a far
greater threat to American workers. Under the H1-B visa,
workers must be paid a ``prevailing wage.'' Employers
often exploited loopholes in that provision and paid H1-B
workers less than their American counterparts. The L-1 visa,
however, has no prevailing wage requirement. And unlike
H1-B visas, which are currently capped at 65,000 per year,
there are no caps on the number of L-1 visas allowed.
About 112,000 were granted in 2002.

The L-1 visa has the potential to be worse than the H-1B visa but the
facts quoted are not accurate. Far more H-1B visas have been granted
than L-1 so any contention that L-1 is worse is based on incorrect
data. Here are the correct numbers for the year 2002, and as you can
see the L-1 number quoted isn't even close to the correct one:

Total Visas Granted for 2002
L-1 Visas: 294,658
H-1B Visas: 355,605

For more statistics go to:
http://www.zazona.com/ShameH1B/Library/BrainSavers/VisaGlut.PDF

This year may be the first time that the number of L-1 visas overtakes
H-1B. That's because the yearly quota of H-1Bs has been issued. No more
H-1B visas can be issued unless Congress raises the quota.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/opinion/7945137.htm

Posted on Fri, Feb. 13, 2004

Now it's an onshore job threat

L-1 VISAS ARE BEING ABUSED TO BRING IN FOREIGN WORKERS WITH AVERAGE
SKILLS WHO RECEIVE LOWER WAGES

Mercury News Editorial

It's tough enough that technology workers in Silicon Valley have to
compete with lower-paid rivals offshore. What's not as well known, and
in some ways more insidious, is the fact that workers here are also
forced to compete with lower-paid rivals right here.

The competition comes from foreign workers who are brought to the
United States under the L-1 visa, a relative of the H1-B visa. Reports
suggest that misuse and abuse of the L-1 visa have become rampant in
recent years. It's time for Congress to fix it.

The L-1 visa serves an important purpose. It is intended to allow
temporary intra-company transfers of workers with specialized skills
from overseas operations to U.S. operations.

A company such as HP or Intel, for example, would use an L-1 visa to
transfer an executive, a high-level manager or an engineer with
knowledge of a specific product from their facilities in Ireland or
China to the United States.

Increasingly, however, the visa has been used to import workers with
run-of-the mill skills -- say accounting or programming -- but no
specialized knowledge. The worst abuse of the L-1 visa comes from
so-called ``body shops,'' outsourcing firms that import workers and
then contract them out to other employers.

Body shops are not new. In 2000, the Mercury News exposed various
Valley body shops that were relying primarily on H1-B visas to bring in
scores of foreign engineers for hire by third parties.

But abuse of the L-1 visa by body shops presents a far greater threat
to American workers. Under the H1-B visa, workers must be paid a
``prevailing wage.'' Employers often exploited loopholes in that
provision and paid H1-B workers less than their American counterparts.
The L-1 visa, however, has no prevailing wage requirement. And unlike
H1-B visas, which are currently capped at 65,000 per year, there are no
caps on the number of L-1 visas allowed. About 112,000 were granted in
2002.

In the most infamous case of L-1 abuse, Siemens Technologies laid off
American high-tech workers in Florida who were paid about $98,000 a
year and replaced them with foreign workers earning $36,000, far below
the salary range for a basic programmer. The foreign workers were
supplied by Tata Consultancy Services, an Indian company.

Congress should consider a number of reforms to the L-1 visa,
including:

Tightening the definition of ``specialized knowledge.''

Limiting the subcontracting of L-1 workers to other firms.

Putting an annual cap on L-1 visas.

Setting requirements that L-1 workers be paid prevailing wages.

To ensure that these reforms have teeth, Congress must make those
provisions easily enforceable.

Fixing the L-1 visa won't end the woes faced by tech workers here. But
it would level the playing field a bit.

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