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"The abuse of the system is real, and media reports are validating what we have argued against for years, including the fact that Americans are training their replacements."
(Grassley-Durbin Bill press statement, Nov 11)
There has been much ado about the H1-B and L1 visa programs for foreign workers, with some in favor, and some against. What is pretty clear though, is that abuses do happen.
Now Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Richard Durbin (D-IL) have introduced legislation to try and curb some of these abuses. Among other things, their bill proposes to prohibit companies with more than 50 employees of hiring H1-B employees if the company already employs more than 50 percent of H1-B and L1 visa holders, and to establish a wage floor for L1 workers.
Working conditions of similarly employed American workers may not be adversely affected by the hiring of the H-1B worker, including H-1B workers who have been placed by another employer at the American worker's worksite. In addition, it explicitly prohibits the replacement of American workers by H-1B or L-1 visa holders.
Full text of the bill here (pdf), supporting statement by IEEE USA here.
Given election times and all, what chance do you think this bill has to make it into legislation?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 25 2015, @02:04PM
It's very easy to sound erudite to criticize somebody else's posting without actually contributing. (Note that I apply this both to myself in responding to you as well as you responding to the bill.) However that rarely actually gets us anywhere.
I don't fully agree with all your analogies, but I do think you have at least some point. Some of the ideas in the bill seem half-baked or not thought through (such as the 50% maximum H1B employment... it sounds intuitive but also sounds like it will have very unintended secondary effects). However some of them on the surface seem reasonable to me (such as the salary floor).
In my opinion, though, more important than the actual implementation at this point is the recognition from politicians that the current system isn't working and is being abused. This is especially good considering how much lobbying money is out there to increase H1Bs. Even if the actual solution they are proposing is imperfect, I think they should be commended on even floating this idea. It seems like at least a step in the right direction.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 25 2015, @04:02PM
GP was criticizing the bill, not TFS/TFA which reported on the bill. So that should be exempt from the "whining w/o contributing" charge. I agree that the bill does not sound especially well thought out, it focuses on current statistics but doesn't address legitimate issues, like the business about having to train replacement workers in order to collect severance.
(Score: 1) by PocketSizeSUn on Wednesday November 25 2015, @04:14PM
50% H1-B is targeting *specifically* the massive H1-B contract houses like TATA, WIPRO, INFOSYS and dozens more that hoard a huge percentage of the H1-B visas available and are notorious for gaming the system (understating titles, paying horribly low wages, and finally providing mostly useless bodies for seats).
Large companies and good employers simply don't have a majority of their workforce on H1-B / L1 which is why, for example, the Google's and Microsoft's direct H1-B hires do get comparable to normal (US Citizen/Green Card) wage.
Heck I'd even be in favor of the big Indian consulting firms being banned from holding H1-B / L1 and B-series visas given their on-going abuses. Just removing those jokers and the whole FWD.us crowd has access to more H1-B visas than they can use.