Microsoft, Cisco Hide H-1B Hires Through Indian Outsourcing Firms, Says Report
by JOHN BINDER
8 Jun 2017
Silicon Valley, CA
544 comments
A number of the largest tech corporations in Silicon Valley hide their hiring of foreign workers through the H-1B visa by contracting them through India-based outsourcing firms, a report states.
In a revealing report by Bloomberg News, Cisco, Microsoft, Google, Facebook and others are using outsourcing firms to obtain hundreds, and sometimes thousands of H-1B staff, often replacing Americans.
For instance, when outsourcing firms applied for foreign H-1B workers on Cisco’s behalf, the average salary for those jobs being outsourced were about 25 percent lower than the average salary for foreign worker that the company had directly requested.
In other words, Cisco hides its usage of the H-1B visa by contracting foreign workers through an outsourcing firm and pays them less than when they hire foreign workers directly. The revelation is in-step with critics’ frustration with the H-1B visa, which they describe as a cheap labor avenue:
Cisco’s use of the visa program has been the subject of public attention over the years, as its executives have lobbied for its expansion even while conducting multiple rounds of layoffs. The company eliminated 940 jobs at its headquarters in 2016, and 390 more so far this year.
Not every application resulted in a new job at Cisco — fewer than a third of the applications for all industries in 2016 were accepted. Still, taken as a whole, the applications show that Cisco is both more reliant on the H-1B program than previously acknowledged, and that the company uses it in a way that has not been fully understood. The contractors were not applying for visas covering the type of senior-level positions that Cisco sought for itself. Instead, almost all of these visa requests were for jobs requiring little or no specialized knowledge. The average salaries for those positions were about 25 percent lower than the jobs Cisco applied for directly.
Every year, more than 100,000 foreign workers are brought to the U.S. on the H-1B visa. Most recently, that number has ballooned to potentially hundreds of thousands each year, as universities and non-profits are exempt from the cap. With more entering the U.S. through the visa, Americans are often fired and forced to their foreign replacement.
Additionally, other giant American tech companies are using the same model as Cisco. PayPal, for example, partnered with an outsourcing firm between 2015 and 2016 that applied for half of the foreign H-1B staff the tech giant was requesting. The other half were applied for directly by PayPal.
At the Microsoft Corporation’s headquarters, 43 percent of the foreign H-1B workers were applied for through an outsourcing outfit, as well as 29 percent at eBay and 12 percent at Facebook’s respective home bases.
In the past, critics of the H-1B visa told Breitbart Texas that tech corporations, as well as other industries, have for years been using various foreign guest worker visas, like the H-1B, to save on labor costs.
http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2017/...s-says-report/
Lowe’s lays off over 120 tech workers in Mooresville, will send jobs to India
This type of thing is just as bad for Americans.
Lowe’s lays off over 120 tech workers in Mooresville, will send jobs to India
By Katherine Peralta
kperalta@charlotteobserver.com
Amid efforts to improve its profitability, Lowe’s has laid off about 125 corporate tech workers, primarily at its headquarters in Mooresville.
The home-improvement retailer informed affected employees Wednesday morning through early afternoon, according to people familiar with the matter.
Many of the affected information technology job functions are being sent to Bangalore, India, where Lowe’s employs approximately 1,000 people in information and technology and analytics.
Wednesday’s layoffs are the latest in several rounds of reductions over the last year.
Lowe’s eliminated 96 corporate tech jobs in October, then in January cut another 2,400 full-time jobs, mostly at the store level. In February, it followed with more than 500 corporate layoffs, including 430 at its headquarters in Mooresville and 70 support staffers in Wilkesboro.
Everybody’s kind of like, ‘When’s the next wave coming?’
Former Lowe’s IT worker
“Everybody’s kind of like, ‘When’s the next wave coming?’” said one former IT employee who has been laid off by the company. He asked to remain anonymous to protect business relationships.
In a memo to IT workers Wednesday, Chief Information Officer Paul Ramsay said the staffing reductions are part of planning effort that began “several years ago” to build a more diverse, global team to respond better “in this highly competitive 24/7 retail environment” and more quickly to “evolving consumer needs.”
“It is always incredibly hard to make decisions such as these that directly impact our people and our teams,” Ramsay said. He added that the company will be providing a competitive severance package and outplacement services, including a job fair with local IT employers.
Bangalore has been described as the “Silicon Valley of India.” Other major corporations have a growing presence in the IT hub, including Oracle, Dell, IBM and GE, according to a recent Wired story. Another is Wipro, an outsourcing firm used by Observer parent McClatchy.
The latest staffing changes come at a critical time for Lowe’s. Last month, the company posted disappointing sales and earnings numbers for the first quarter. Lowe’s has been working to catch up to its larger rival, Atlanta-based Home Depot, which has consistently outperformed it.
Lowe’s recent performance is at odds with the improvements in the overall economy that should provide it a tailwind: Solid job growth has pushed the national unemployment rate down to its lowest level in a decade in April, property values are rising and mortgage rates remain relatively low.
Along with layoffs, to improve profitability, Lowe’s has been working to boost its offerings for its lucrative professional base, which includes customers such as contractors, who reliably and frequently place bigger orders than the average customer. Last month, for instance, the company purchased a Houston company called Maintenance Supply Headquarters for $512 million.
