Bill to Curb Work Visas

Date: Friday, May 30, 2003 3:30 PM

JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

www.ZaZona.com

This article mentions letters to the CEO of Siemens (George Nolen) from
Mike Emmons. Those letters can be found at:
http://www.hannatroup.com:81/USA/tata/The_Emails/

http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=55c62a385df9e41acbdb1c4de69952c8

Bill to Curb Work Visas

India-West, Ashfaque Swapan, May 29, 2003

U.S. Rep. John L. Mica, R-Fla., introduced a bill May 19 to slap curbs
on the L-1 visa, with his office describing the bill as "legislation
aimed at closing a loophole in current immigration law and protecting
American jobs."

"Many Americans have found themselves in the unemployment line because
some companies have abused our immigration laws," Mica said.
"Unfortunately, the L-1 visa program, while well-intentioned, has been
used as a back door to cheap labor."

In a nation concerned over a sluggish economy and yet to recover from
the dot-com bust, Mica's bill comes amid furor over a recent case where
critics charged that telecom and electronics giant Siemens brought in
cheap foreign labor through Tata Consultancy Services in a Lake Mary,
Fla., facility as replacement for U.S. high-tech workers, who were then
laid off. Some employees bitterly complained that they had to train
their replacement workers before they went.

Currently, companies can transfer employees from subsidiaries in
foreign countries to the United States through the L-1 visa program, as
long as the intracompany transferees have been employed with the
company for at least six months. Once in the country, those employees
can then be outsourced to other U.S. firms. The bill bars the
outsourcing of L-1 visa holders, similar to a provision contained in
the H-1B visa program.

Of the 32,416 L-1 visas given in the first six months of 2003, Indians
constitute over 10,000. Indian outsourcing companies appear to be using
L-1 visas more: Wipro got 289 visas for its employees in 2000, this
year it already has taken 1,157 visas. Infosys has sought over 1,700
visas this year, up from 218 visas in 2000.

Outsourcing firms say they pay their L-1 workers wages comparable to
what American workers earn. But TCS has acknowledged that when it took
over the project at Siemens Information and Communication Networks in
Lake Mary, it paid some programmers only $36,000 a year -- below the
average local range of $37, 794 to $69,638 for a basic programmer. One
of the irate Siemens employees, Michael Emmons, quit his post at
Siemens Nov. 22 rather than wait to be replaced by a worker from Tata
Consultancy Services holding an L-1 visa.

In an angry letter to Siemens CEO George C. Nolen, Emmons wrote: "I am
so against your program that replaces your staff with foreigners,
specifically Indians from India in OUR country on L-1 'intra-company
transfer' visas; the infamous L-1 visa, your 'American Worker
Replacement Visa'."

The intra-company transfer for TCS employees was from Tata Consulting
India to Tata Consulting USA. "These Indians are then sold off as
'consultants' to American businesses, Siemens in this case," Emmons
said. "I spoke to Representative John L. Mica (FL) and he told me the
intent of the L-1 visa is to NOT REPLACE American workers."

H1-B visas and the relatively little known L-1 visas have long been
criticized by critics who say the programs are abused by companies to
lay off higher-paid U.S. citizens to hire cheaper visa holders.

Industry heavyweights, on the other hand, have argued that they need
the flow of skilled manpower to keep the U.S. competitive.

It is a measure of how apart views of opponents and supporters are that
both critics and supporters criticized Mica's bill, though for opposite
reasons.

"The L-1 visa is a critical tool for a lot of companies that need to
bring people to the United States," said James Maylock, managing
partner of nationwide immigration law firm Elliot and Mayock, who backs
H1-B and L-1 visas. "The proposed legislation is simply another effort
to prevent the international flow of skilled personnel," he told
India-West. "In general, people coming into our economy are coming
because they are needed, not because of some nefarious scheme to
undercut the wages of the American workers."

University of California of Davis computer science Prof. Norman
Matloff, a harsh critic of the current H1-B and L-1 visa system, on the
other hand, scoffed at Mica's measure, calling the proposed bill "a
ruse."

"It's a non-bill," he said. "It does nothing to address the issues he
brought up. The issues he brought up are very real-the importation of
cheap labor, the replacement of Americans by foreign labor including
forcing the Americans to train foreign workers. But his bill does
nothing to address any of that." The bill had enough loopholes for
companies to continue business as usual, he added.

Indian outsourcing firms are unhappy about the bill.

"While TCS certainly understands Representative Mica's concerns
regarding IT workers in his district, the legislative proposal will do
little to get at the underlying problem of companies abusing the
program," a TCS spokesperson told India-West. "At the same time it
could have many unintended consequences. "

Pete Bennett, a Danville, Calif.-based computer programmer who hosts
the anti-H1-B visa Web site www.nomoreh1b.com, told this reporter the
L-1 visa is a threat to U.S. workers. "It's unregulated," he said. "It
generates an invisible, transparent worker to the Bureau of Labor
Statistics. The number of workers being brought over in the L-1 visa is
clearly abusive.

"I do not think the bill goes far enough, I'd like to see every visa
worker that comes to the United States to be immediately logged in by
the IRS."

Matloff told India-West the H1-B and L-1 visas were being used for
purposes that lawmakers have expressly said they weren't. He said Sun
Microsystems had admitted it laid off U.S. workers while keeping H1-B
visa workers, and other heavyweight companies were also doing the same.
He said there was plenty of evidence, including his own research and a
UCLA study that showed H-1B workers are paid less. A Congress-ordered
National Research Council study had confirmed this.

Immigration attorney Maylock was less convinced about the visas being
widely abused. "I am not sure there is any empirical evidence to
support the claims made by the (L-1 visa) restrictions," he said. "I
think the economics of the situation is different than it's being
painted. Before they put a remedy, I'm eager to see whether there's
actually a disease.

"There's clearly been a downturn in the tech economy and the economy as
a whole, but I am not convinced that there's evidence that any of these
visa programs are being used to undercut American workers. There may be
some anecdotal evidence of limited wage differentials, but I think by
and large these people tend to be complementary to U.S. business
activities and oftentimes work shoulder-to-shoulder with their American
colleagues."

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