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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: 5, Insightful) by MrGuy on Wednesday November 25 2015, @02:51PM
It's about whether it will be enforced.
There are already rules designed to prevent abuse like what's happening at Disney. [theatlantic.com]
For H1B visa sponsors, there's a requirement to post and get comment on an LCA [visapro.com] (Labor Condition Application) that describes and requires them to pay the "prevailing wage" for the work in question to any H1B visa holders hired to do the same work. In theory, this should mean an employer would never have an incentive to fire citizens and replace them with H1B workers, because they'd have to pay the current "prevailing wage" to the H1B workers.
However, the Department of Labor has essentially no budget to audit LCA's, and definitely no budget to investigate abuses of paying the "prevailing wage" or sanction violators.
Without an actual budget for enforcement, these new proposed regulations will be just as toothless as the ones we already have (which may already be sufficient if they were actually enforced).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 25 2015, @04:16PM
Disney is using a loophole. The H1B people are not permanent, they are just the first step to off-shoring. They are here on H1B in order to be trained on the system and then after a year or so will be sent back home where they will continue to do the job. So technically they aren't taking american jobs. Off-shoring is a huge use H1B - the top ten employers of H1Bs are all off-shoring firms. [epi.org]
There is also an LCA loophole. [cringely.com] Employers can issue more than one LCA for the same job, each with different prevailing wages. As long as one LCA gets approved the employer can use any of the prevailing wages from any of the LCAs for determining if there is a local who will take the job.
But you are right, there is no budget for H1B enforcement at all. Zilch. The laws are on the books but congress hasn't ever allocated any money to enforce them so nobody gets busted unless the press gets involved like they did with Disney and SoCal Edison.