H-1B visa: Major tech employer in Silicon Valley committing 'wage theft' against foreign workers, report alleges

An outsourcing institution accused of committing "wage theft" against overseas citizens connected the H-1B visa has received approvals to spot workers astatine large Silicon Valley exertion firms, according to a caller study and national authorities data.

Internal documents connected worker wages astatine outsourcer HCL Technologies, a starring supplier of IT declaration workers, are cardinal to the allegations successful the report from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, based connected documents obtained via a national authorities whistleblower suit against HCL successful a national tribunal successful Connecticut.

"This is the archetypal wrong look into the playbook of however to maltreatment the (H-1B) programme and the failures of authorities and the Department of Labor for not enforcing the law," said Ron Hira, a prof astatine Howard University who studies the H-1B and co-authored the report.

The study released this week claims that HCL "appears to beryllium stealing astatine slightest $95 cardinal per twelvemonth successful wages from its H-1B employees." India-headquartered HCL did not respond to a petition for remark emailed Thursday to its U.S. media-relations office.

The study alleged further that, "victims see not lone the H-1B workers but besides the U.S. workers who are either displaced oregon whose wages and moving conditions degrade erstwhile employers are allowed to underpay skilled migrant workers with impunity."

"HCL is not making a product, they're reselling labor," Hira said. "Those customers cognize what they're getting: They're getting little outgo labor."

The H-1B visa, intended for jobs requiring specialized skills, is heavy utilized by large tech firms, which employment the overseas workers straight and via outsourcers.

Data from the U.S. Department of Labor amusement the bureau has fixed HCL support to spot its declaration workers astatine Silicon Valley tech giants including Google, Facebook, Intel and Cisco. There is nary accusation successful the study to bespeak that immoderate HCL H-1B workers astatine those Silicon Valley companies are not paid according to the law, which requires companies straight employing H-1B workers wage them wages equivalent to those of their U.S. workers and greenish paper holders.

Intel spokesperson Penny Bruce said the institution was reviewing the report. "We clasp our suppliers accountable to the aforesaid expectations we person for ourselves," Bruce said.

None of the different 3 Silicon Valley companies provided answers to questions astir the study and its allegations.

Internal HCL documents released done the suit and reproduced successful the study bespeak that HCL pays U.S. citizens 13% to 64% much than H-1B workers successful 5 areas of IT expertise. Another papers reproduced successful the study noted that "local hiring" was "significantly much expensive" than hiring H-1Bs.

Of the apical 30 H-1B employers, 17 are outsources, according to the institute's report. "Silicon Valley companies are immoderate of the biggest customers of these firms," Hira said. Hira added that helium believes "that what HCL practices by paying their H-1B workers little than paying their non-H-1B workers is astir apt communal practice. We fishy that it's not conscionable HCL that's availing themselves of this but each of the large outsourcers."

According to the report's different author, Daniel Costa, manager of migration instrumentality and argumentation probe astatine the institute, "There are perchance tens of thousands of workers who are being underpaid."

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