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From an article in Computerworld:
Ten U.S. senators, representing the political spectrum, are seeking a federal investigation into displacement of IT workers by H-1B-using contractors.
They are asking the U.S. Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security and the Labor Department to investigate the use of the H-1B program "to replace large numbers of American workers" at Southern California Edison (SCE) and other employers.
Rather than all of us just griping on Soylent and 'that other site' about H-1B tech workers flooding in while there are plenty of Americans looking for work, these IT workers had a union, and got the attention of 10 senators to look into this issue. Southern California Edison laid off a bunch of American IT workers to replace them with H-1B Indians, and their union (since they are a utility, they happened to have had one), came to the rescue with a huge media campaign and now investigations by US Senators.
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Saturday April 11 2015, @10:24PM
The first priority should be enforcement of the rules. Does anyone think that the big outsourcing companies are following the laws on H1-B visas?
For policy change, I think that H1-B visas should only be granted to companies that will directly benefit from the employees' work. In other words, a model whereby an H1-B employee is shopped out like a contractor to other companies should not be allowed.
Lastly, any company that has laid off more than a very small number of employees performing the same tasks as the H1-B employees should not be allowed to get H1-B visas, and the policy change above should be used to prevent companies from laying off employees and then replacing them with outsourced employees doing the same jobs.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2015, @11:43PM
> The first priority should be enforcement of the rules.
That will cost money. There is literally no money allocated in the budget for H1B rule enforcement. Only the worst cases of fraud and abuse ever get investigated because they are so egregious that the public gets involved and external pressure makes it happen.
> . In other words, a model whereby an H1-B employee is shopped out like a contractor to other companies should not be allowed.
Half of H1B visas are used in the process of off-shoring. [npr.org] This SCE case is one such example. They aren't shopped out like a contractor, they are on-site for a year or two of training and then they go back to India and take the job with them.
> Lastly, any company that has laid off more than a very small number of employees performing the same tasks as the
> H1-B employees should not be allowed to get H1-B visas,
Good luck with that. HR will just play tricks and reclassify the position to have different titles despite doing the same work. IT work is already such a catch-all.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by SanityCheck on Sunday April 12 2015, @03:31AM
I disagree. There should be no H1B anything. No fuckin reason what so ever is justified enough for the shit-storm that these cause.