2 Articles about Sona Shah and Pascrell's bill
2 Articles about Sona Shah and Pascrell's bill
Date: Wednesday, November 30, 2005 12:55 AM
JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER
November 30, 2005 No. 1375
Rep. Bill Pascrell recently announced his new bill to reform H-1B - the
"Defend the American Dream Act of 2005" (H.R. 4378). Sona Shah, an
unemployed IT worker, helped draft the bill and recently appeared on the
Lou Dobbs Show with Pascrell. You can see a video clip of that Dobbs show
by going to:
http://www.zazona.com/shameh1b/MediaClips.htm
Sona Shah has been actively fighting for the rights of American workers for
quite a long time. In 2004 she had a debate with former Secretary of Labor
Robert Reich on CNNfn over issues such as outsourcing, H-1B, and education.
I decided to put this video online because it's entertaining to see how
thoroughly she kicked Reich's butt! Despite the fact that Reich was a
professional Washington DC insider that has spent his career in debates, he
was no match for Shah's superior wit. Use the link above to see that video.
The articles below feature Sona Shah. This first one is the best but there
is one major factual error:
As a rule of thumb, a company can only hire foreign workers
professionals on an H1-B visa if they demonstrate an American
cannot do the job. They have to place advertisements for the
position in the US that must go unanswered, but as we have all
found out there are ways to get around this requirement.
This myth appears in so many articles I get tired of debunking it. The H-1B
program has no requirement for a labor market test so employers do not have
to consider Americans before hiring H-1Bs. This requirement is still in
place for employment sponsored Green Cards.
I tried to convince Pascrell's office to include a "Labor Market Test" that
would be similar to the Green Card process. Originally he had a weak labor
market test in his bill but it got stripped out of his final version, In
its place, Section 3 of Pascrell's bill is titled "Good Faith Recuitment
Requirement". Although the bill has its good points, Section 3 is as weak
as it sounds.
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http://www.kavitachhibber.com/legal.html
H1-B Visa Professionals vs US Citizens: All That Glitters is not Gold
Harmeet Dhillon Talks to Kavita Chhibber
Sona Shah is a US citizen, and this is not just her story, but also that of
many others like her. Its the story of foreigners who come to this
country dreaming of a new, prosperous life in the land of milk and honey --
the United States of America. Its also the story of the US citizens who
pay a heavy price because of the laws governing foreign workers.
Sonas story in her own words is this. Born in India, Sona has lived in
the US since she was three. She is a mechanical engineer, and after
graduation went to work as a programmer for the New York City branch of a
multinational software firm Wilco Systems. Wilcos business model was to
sell its software to the financial industry and lease its programmers, by
the hour to install that software. Wilco is what the tech industry calls a
"body shop."
From almost the day she was hired, Sona says she saw that most of Wilcos
employees were non-immigrant guest workers on a bouquet of temporary visas
including H1, L1, J1, F1 and even visitor and training visas. "I witnessed
firsthand the degradation of the work force, foreign and domestic, enabled
by these unregulated visa programs."
Because Wilco hired few American programmers, Sona was asked to work in
London, where she remained for 7 months. During this time the London guest
workers and Sonas corporate housing, provided by Wilco to supplement
the substandard wages that the company paid, was frequently without heat,
hot water and electricity. In addition to substandard housing, she also had
her first experience with Wilcos blatant disregard for international
immigration law. Attempting to exploit a loophole in British immigration
policies, Wilco sent Sona and three Hong Kong nationals on a day trip to
Paris to activate their work visas. "Upon our return to London, British
authorities discovered that we had already been working in the UK for
several months prior to re-entry and deported the three Hong Kong
nationals. I was allowed to return to the London office to alert Wilco
Systems of the deportations. Wilco Human Resources said this was
commonplace and not to worry. They would obtain more Hong Kong nationals. I
would learn this attitude also applied to Wilco's US operation."
Shortly after this episode, Wilco's London managing director, Sunil Shah,
asked Sona to travel to India to recruit Indians for the New York office,
because "Americans don't make quality workers, they are stupid, expensive
and difficult to control." Due to the Hong Kong Handover to Communist
China, it was becoming harder to import Chinese workers. However,
India is a democracy, so it was easier to get Indians past US immigration.
"I knew qualified Americans were available in NY, so I did not assist. I
was returned to the NY office. At the same time, Kai Barrett, a British
programmer that I had met in London and developed a relationship with,
accepted a position at Wilco in NYC.
Upon my return to New York, I did not receive work or training assignments.
I was not given a computer or even a desk. I was not alone. I joined the
other American programmers who, each morning, would look for a place to sit
that day. We thus remained idle for months, often sitting on windowsills
around the office. Our skills, morale deteriorated from this lack of
training and/or hands on work. Periodically batches of us American workers,
hired as window dressing, were terminated." Meanwhile, foreign employees on
a variety of visas kept arriving in NY and were either immediately sent to
Wilco's client sites or placed in training.
Sona finally approached Wilco's CEO, Craig Spendiff, and asked for work,
only to be told there wasnt any and that she wasnt the only
programmer sitting idle. When she asked why foreign programmers were
brought to the US if there was a lack of work opportunity within Wilco, she
started receiving work assignments, "although at each assignment a foreign
employee quickly replaced me."
The new, mostly Indian, recruits were severely underpaid; most were paid
half the wages of their American counterparts. The foreign workforce was
also subjected to captive audience, loyalty meetings where Wilco managing
directors lectured these visa holders on being loyal to the company because
it enabled them to be in the US.
"I was approached by an Indian recruit regarding his rights under American
law. He and several others wanted to leave Wilco immediately. He was
disappointed when I explained the difficulty of transferring to a new US
employer under the various visas programs."
Eventually, Sonas employment was terminated. "I wrote letters to the
DOL/DOJ/INS requesting investigation of Wilco. We received no response from
most of the government agencies; however the EEOC granted us the right to
sue." Sona decided to represent Wilcos American employees who had been
denied work, training and eventually their jobs like she had. Kai sought to
represent all foreign employees- Indian, Chinese and English, who were
underpaid. "Evidently there is no Federal law prohibiting the specific
discrimination we witnessed at Wilco," says Sona and adds, "Title VII does
not prohibit discrimination based on a persons immigration status.
However the New York City and State Human Rights Law does. Thus our case is
pending in NY State Supreme Court. Our case will test the strength of the
New York Human Rights Laws in protecting both groups of workers."
This is Sona Shahs testimony in a nut shell. What is interesting is not
the fact that H1-B visa professionals from other countries are exploited,
but that all of them, in spite of knowing about such cases think, it
wont happen to them. Others think, "well, let me just get my foot
through the door. Once I reach the US, I will find better opportunities."
Ive been an attorney since 1993, and it was around the late 1990s that I
started hearing about exploitation of IT professionals. There was also a
huge disparity between the salaries in India and the ones these
professionals could draw here because of the dot.com boom and that made
them throw caution to the winds and accept whatever offer came their way
and come here. Now as the salaries have become more competitive, people
have started realizing there may be possibility of them being exploited.
As a rule of thumb, a company can only hire foreign workers professionals
on an H1-B visa if they demonstrate an American cannot do the job. They
have to place advertisements for the position in the US that must go
unanswered, but as we have all found out there are ways to get around this
requirement. Big companies will say we got a response from 2 Americans but
we need 50 workers, so we need to get them from abroad. This case shows how
easily the system, intended to provide high quality workers to supplement
US business needs, is "gamed" to exploit both US and foreign workers. There
are many Americans available to do the jobs, but not willing to do them for
substandard or even exploitative wages and working conditions. And
Americans are not willing to pay higher prices for goods and services made
through honest wages.
Another unique thing about this case is that the people affected are both
American citizens as well as foreign workers, and both were abused and
mistreated because of the flaws in the system. When Sona complained about
the inhuman conditions, she was told to shut up and got a bad performance
review; when she did stay quiet for a short while she was back in the good
books of the Wilco top hats.
Retaliation, is commonplace employer reaction to the complaints of a
principled corporate gadfly such as Sona Shah. Having worked as outside
counsel for big corporations, I know for a fact that these cases are very
seldom won by the plaintiff. The big companies can outspend the plaintiffs
in mounting a vigorous defense, and finally the plaintiffs often give up,
unwilling to spend further years of their lives slowly grinding through the
wheels of justice.
With 1.2 billion people in China and over a billion in India, for every one
man who stands up against being exploited there are ten others willing to
take his place. The American worker complains for example that he/she got
paid 37k instead of 47k he/she was entitled to. I just read of a young girl
who committed suicide by hanging herself because her mother couldnt give
her 1 rupee per day as lunch money for school. So for an Indian from a not
so well to do family 37k is a huge amount.
Capitalisms seductive voice dazzles enough starry-eyed foreign workers
to throw caution to the winds, and come here only to be exploited. In
todays global economy, its very easy to find what the standard
salaries for specific qualifications are and I would advice foreign workers
not to get carried away by promises but to do their homework. It is
unlawful to make people work under subhuman conditions. Sometimes these
companies promise housing as parts of the perks, but these places are in
horrible, housing a large number of people in conditions that no American
would tolerate. The American worker force is also getting victimized by
being bypassed for jobs that should rightfully be theirs, because of absent
exploitative corporate employment practices.
Sona Shah was subpoenaed to speak at a congressional hearing on visa abuse.
Present also was the father of a US citizen who had committed suicide after
he was replaced at work by a foreigner, and his story which screamed of the
toll these programs have on the psyche of the American worker is not
unique. The Americans are also deprived of training to improve their skills
and get better job opportunities that would be open to them were it not for
a system where cheap, foreign and ultimately disposable labor has been
available for exploitation. There is resentment now amongst Americans who
feel their tax benefits and other incentives have been given to business
lobbies with little regard for long term competition, and the humane
treatment of foreign workers. Its ironic that an American sues for being
discriminated against for being American in her own country. But its
about time that someone drew attention to the dual plight of the US and
foreign workers victimized by lax and contradictory visa programs coupled
with unscrupulous employers. Whatever the outcome, Shah should be applauded
for challenging an unfair system by targeting the Achilles tendon that may
make these companies sit up and pay attention -- the bottom line.
Harmeet K. Dhillon is complex commercial litigator practicing in New York
City who has practiced in New York, London, Silicon Valley and San
Francisco as well as before courts around the US. She has a background in
civil rights, employment discrimination, human rights and domestic violence
advocacy in addition to her broad business litigation practice.
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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1304317.cms
NRI drafts bill to amend H1-B, L1
[ Tuesday, November 22, 2005 01:35:17 pmIANS ]
WASHINGTON: Even as the US Senate has voted to increase the annual quota of
H1-B visas for foreign workers, an Indian-American who lost her job to
outsourcing has drafted a bill that seeks a better deal for employees.
The bill was introduced in the House of Representatives Nov 17 by Bill
Pascrell (Democrat-New Jersey) and seeks an amendment to the H1-B and L1
visa programmes.
It was drafted by Sona Shah, a data programmer, who is in the throes of
filing a class-action suit against Wilco, the company that fired her after
she had trained a foreign worker to replace her.
The bill, introduced by the Congressman on Shah's 34th birthday, has grown
out of two years of Shah's work with Pascrell and her campaign against both
outsourcing as well as the low wages paid to foreign workers who replace
Americans like her.
Shah said the battle has been to establish a "class" of workers that are
being underpaid, and those that are being displaced. This class action she
noted, was different from traditional civil rights cases.
"We are kind of like the first sexual harassment case fought in the
country."
According to her, the "class" in the suit is made up of approximately 2,000
people. As there is no federal law in the US under which the cases of both
the H-1B visa holders who felt discriminated against and American citizens
who lost their jobs to outsourcing could be brought, Shah said she was
fighting the case under the New York City Human Rights Law.
Because of how new the law is and because it has no precedent set yet, Shah
said lawyers were hard to find. So far, her legal battle has led to
defeating a motion to dismiss the case and defeating a summary judgment
appeal.
"It's a constant struggle to find the lawyers to make up the right kind of
team for this kind of class action," Shah told IANS.
On Monday, at a press conference in Paterson, New Jersey, Pascrell
announced federal legislation to reform what he called "the critically
flawed H1-B and L1 visa programme."
H1-B visas are for "skilled workers" while L1 visas is for intra-company
transferees.
"American workers can't afford for the federal government to remain silent
on real worker visa reform," he said.
The text of the bill is yet to be posted in government documents but Shah
provided a copy of the bill to IANS.
Shah, who was born in Ahmedabad, came with her parents to the US when she
was three. She has a Bachelors degrees in Physics and Mechanical
Engineering from New York University and Stevens Institute of Technology,
Hoboken, New Jersey respectively.
But Shah is still looking for work after every successive job she held
following her Wilco experience disappeared or went to an H1-B visa holder.
The Bill "To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to provide greater
protections to domestic and foreign workers under the H1-B non-immigrant
worker program," was first introduced Nov 17 last year and again on the
same date this year.
Shah had testified in the US Congress in 2004 in the middle of a heated
national debate on the issue.
The bill's suggested short title "Defend the American Dream Act of 2005",
calls for changes in wage levels to foreign workers on H1B that would match
prevailing local salaries.
It also requires employers to submit wage declarations to the Internal
Revenue Service, extend the time given for termination of services,
prohibit outplacement, and requires employers to be transparent in
providing information to employees on H1-B employees conditions besides a
host of other measures.
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