Thread: Fired IT workers fight back against H-1B visa abuse

http://www.infoworld.com/d/the-industry ... use-175151

Fired IT workers fight back against H-1B visa abuse
By Bill Snyder
Created 2011-10-06 03:00AM

It's an old story: Skilled IT workers in the United States are fired and replaced with low-paid overseas employees and holders of H-1B visas [1]. That happened recently at Molina Healthcare, a company that has scored $9 billion of Medicare and Medicaid contracts in the last three years.

But the story of Molina is a bit different than the usual outsourcing horror stories [2] we hear all too often. Workers at Molina are fighting back with a lawsuit alleging that the company and its employment contractor have discriminated again them because they are not from India and fired them after creating a hostile work environment by holding meetings in Hindi with no translators present, leaving English speakers bewildered and isolated. Also according to the complaint, they required U.S. workers to take work home on U.S. holidays but did not ask Indian workers to do the same on Indian holidays.

The timing is interesting as well. It's fairly clear that IT hiring is reviving, and I've recently spoken with many companies that say quality workers are in high demand. But Molina fired highly qualified workers who were already on the payroll. It appears that some companies have decided to permanently lower costs by relying on outsourcing and bringing in foreign workers, a strategy that damages the U.S. economy at a time when overall unemployment is above 9 percent.

The suit was filed in a California Superior Court on behalf of 18 of the displaced workers, who also allege that the employment contractor, Cognizant, deliberately flouted visa regulations by importing workers to displace -- not supplement, as the H-1B visas are supposed to be used -- a domestic workforce.

The story gains even more credibility: The chief witness for the plaintiffs is the former head of Molina's HR department, who along with other senior HR types is joining the suit, according to Jim Otto, the attorney who represents the fired employees.

And much of the financial information cited in the lawsuit was supplied by Laura Onufrock, Molina's former IT department budget manager. Onufrock isn't a plaintiff. Asked why she was acting as a witness in this case, she said, "They've done a lot of damage to people, and I'm hoping I can help." Onufrock spoke with a reporter at our sister publication Computerworld, which carried an excellent story [7] on earlier developments in the Molina case last August.

In come H-1B visa holders, out go experienced U.S. workers
Late in 2009, Cognizant told the U.S. Department of Labor that its application to bring 40 H-1B workers into the United States complied with regulation stating that the importation of these employees would not have an adverse impact on the existing workforce. The application was approved on Jan. 13, 2010. The next day, 40 of Molina's programmers, managers, and security analysts were fired, according to the lawsuit. The workers were told they were being let go as a cost-cutting measure.


The company's HR managers protested, saying that the firings could be illegal discrimination because Molina clearly had jobs available. But then-CIO Amir Desai told HR "that he had his orders from upper management, thus the American workers must be fired from their job to make room for the Indian nationals," according to the lawsuit.

In statements to Computerworld, Desai (through his lawyer), Molina, and Cognizant all strongly denied the allegations made by Otto and his clients. Molina linked the outsourcing and use of H-1B workers to efforts to control health care costs: "Like most leading health care companies, Molina has put in place a variety of measures to reduce costs, including the outsourcing of labor-intensive administrative tasks to specialized firms. Working with Cognizant, an established leader in outsourcing, Molina embarked on a successful program to reduce its overhead, so it could focus on what it does best: providing America's underserved communities with access to the best possible health care," the company said.

That argument makes me really angry. Americans are rightfully concerned about soaring health care costs, but claiming to solve that by creating yet more unemployment is a twisted rationale. The assertion of containing health care costs is a transparent, disingenuous attempt to undercut support for the fired workers.

Indian workers got screwed, too

Whenever I write about H-1B abuse, I make the point that the Indian workers are not to blame. They are doing what we all try and do: make a better life for themselves and their families. As it turns out, the workers who came to the United States weren't doing very well. According to Otto, their actual wages paid by Cognizant were so low they had to live six to a room; workers abroad were being paid even less.

But Cognizant made out very, very nicely, paid $72 an hour by Molina for the labor of the onshore contractors and $26 an hour for those in India, according to Onufrock. Indeed, Cognizant did so well that Molina's IT costs actually exceed the amount budgeted, which was the rate it used to pay its American workers: $50 per hour. Cognizant was charging half again as much as Molina had paid originally. And yes, that last point is very odd. I don't understand why Molina would go out of the way to spend more money on the H-1B visa-holding workers than on the original domestic staff.

Otto, the attorney, believes part of the answer is that Molina wants a "compliant" staff that will work overtime with no gripes or calls for benefits. It's also possible that at some point the H-1B visa workers will go off Cognizant's books and be paid their substandard wages directly by Molina, without a portion doled out to Cognizant.

In any case, it's clear that the firing of the U.S. workers was unconscionable, as was the ugly work environment. I don't know what prompted those actions, but I'll bet that the idea was to make the U.S. workers so uncomfortable that they'd quit.

As I write this, thousands of ordinary people are demonstrating on Wall Street (video) [8] and other financial centers against corporate greed. Despite the uptick in IT jobs, the economic outlook remains extremely tough for many Americans. Maybe the Molina workers are part of an ugly trend occurring in one of the few bright spots of the economy -- so sad.

I welcome your comments, tips, and suggestions. Post them here (Add a comment [9]) so that all our readers can share them, or reach me at bill.snyder@sbcglobal.net [10]. Follow me on Twitter at BSnyderSF [11].

This article, "Fired IT workers fight back against H-1B visa abuse [12]," was originally published by InfoWorld.com [13]. Read more of Bill Snyder's Tech's Bottom Line blog [14] and follow the latest technology business [15] developments at InfoWorld.com. For the latest business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter [16].

Pretty damn bad outsourcing jobs right here in our own yard!

I work for FedEx as a "contractor" because FedEx "claims" to be under a hiring freeze.
Meanwhile, they're hiring people from India who are here under H-1B Visas buy the truck load on a daily basis!

I know this for a fact and witness it firsthand because part of my job is to create the computer accounts for all the new incoming people at this FedEx site.
"Would it surprise anyone if I were to tell you that easily eighty to ninety percent of the new hires are people from India holding H-1B Visas"?(Please keep in mind that these are extremely high paying computer development jobs that any American would be more than happy to have.)

Yet, FedEx won't hire me, a Vietnam veteran, because of the "hiring freeze"!
Apparently, the "freeze" only applies to American born veterans?!!!

Typical, liberal BS!!!

Rice

Originally Posted by rwrice

"Would it surprise anyone if I were to tell you that easily eighty to ninety percent of the new hires are people from India holding H-1B Visas"?(Please keep in mind that these are extremely high paying computer development jobs that any American would be more than happy to have.)

Consider calling the Fieger Law Firm. They handle cases of employment discrimination.

Fieger Law www.fiegerlaw.com/

Call Fieger Law. 248.355.5555. We Can Help. 19390 West 10 Mile Road, Southfield, Michigan 48075-2463

It's an old story: Skilled IT workers in the United States are fired and replaced with low-paid overseas employees and holders of H-1B visas [1]. That happened recently at Molina Healthcare, a company that has scored $9 billion of Medicare and Medicaid contracts in the last three years.

Would someone please pass this post onto Erik Cantor and the RNC. Those dummies are wailing for the need for MORE visas because US citizen techies are leaving the country. The GOP needs a through housecleaning at the TOP. It will not matter who the GOP presidential nominee is, or how many seats the GOP wins in 2012 if jerks like Cantor, Boehner, and McConnell indicate the kind of congressional leadership we can expect. May as well keep Pelosi and Reid.

Good for them, I think Molina thought that these employees were just going to sit there and take it like a bunch of dummies. Maybe Molina can be made into an example for any of these other companies that are wanting to do this sort of thing. They thought they were going to save money and get off cheap, but now they will be paying more than they would have if they would have just done the right thing.