US foreign worker visa system hijacked by companies using cheap expat labour

Global tech companies based in the USA are being accused of using the H-1B visa programme to import temporary cheap labour from overseas, thus denying jobs to American citizens.

Indian company Infosys Ltd is facing a federal lawsuit alleging discrimination against local workers. According to lawyers acting for former Infosys employees, the company is hiring experienced tech support professionals and laying them off after they have trained their replacements newly arrived from India.

The company is claiming it has difficulties finding US staff due to a local shortage of skilled workers in the sector, and is petitioning Congress to allow even more temporary workers from overseas. Experienced programmers and workers with related skill sets are up on arms over the issue, saying that it’s impossible to compete salary-wise with temporary immigrant workers.

The visa programme in dispute allows six years’ entry and work for those with special skills, with 85.000 visas issue annually. Critics of the stance taken by tech firms on the temporary worker issue state there is no shortage of American software developers and other tech-oriented professionals, citing a significant lack of salary increases in the sector as proof.

It’s cheaper, they add, to hire workers from South Asia, have Americans train them up and then sack the local staff. Last month, tech advocacy groups organised a labour boycott against Manpower Group, Infosys and IBM, accusing the three mega-companies of excluding US workers from jobs in their home country.

According to the groups, Manpower, for example, advertised job openings in India without first attempting to fill the vacancies with local tech staff. Donna Conroy of tech professional group Bright Future Jobs, said she is fighting against hiring practices which discriminates against US workers for monetary gain.