A popular visa program allegedly is being misused by U.S. companies
to lay off thousands of American workers and replace them with foreign
labor.
And, adding insult to injury, many of the laid-off workers allegedly
have been forced to train their replacements, in what one anonymous
whistleblower called a “humiliating” experience.
The allegations have caught the attention of a bipartisan group of
senators -- including immigration hawk Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., and
the No. 2 Senate Democrat, Illinois’ Dick Durbin -- who are calling for a
federal probe. A letter sent by 10 senators urging an investigation
specifically cited reports of the firing and hiring practices at
Southern California Edison, California's second-largest utility. The
incidents are concentrated in the IT field, and involve American workers
being replaced by H-1B visa holders.
“A number of U.S. employers, including some large, well-known,
publicly-traded corporations, have reportedly laid off thousands of
American workers and replaced them with H-1B visa holders,” the senators
wrote.
In the letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, Homeland Security
Secretary Jeh Johnson, and Labor Secretary Thomas Perez, the senators
urged the departments to “investigate the unacceptable replacement of
American workers” to see whether laws were broken.
The H-1B program is supposed to be used to bring in, on a temporary
basis, skilled workers with highly specialized skills not readily
available in the U.S. They are often used in the technology sector to
bring in engineers and computer programmers.
Further, U.S. employers can hire foreign workers for up to six years
and must pay them the same rate they would pay other workers with
similar qualifications, or the prevailing wage for that job and
location, whichever is higher. This is done to prevent foreign workers
from depressing U.S. wages and from being exploited.
But reports have surfaced that the replacements are happening at an
alarming rate. And former Southern California Edison workers have
complained to lawmakers that they were replaced by less-skilled workers
at lower costs.
Anonymous workers who were displaced by the visa holders also
submitted written testimonials to lawmakers detailing their firings.
Several claimed they were forced to train their replacements, and
threatened with losing their severance if they did not.
“We had no choice in this,” one anonymous worker who claimed to have
been one of those let go from Southern California Edison, said in a
letter. The worker described how when the two vendors were picked –
Infosys and TCS, both major Indian companies – SCE employees were told
to “sit with, video chat or do whatever was needed to teach them our
systems.”
If they did not cooperate, according to the testimonial, “we would be fired and not receive a severance package.”
Another worker described this process as “humiliating.”
In a statement, Southern California Edison said it abides by the law
and will cooperate with any investigation that concerns the issues
mentioned in the senators' letter.
The company explained that it's reducing its information technology
department from 1,400 to 860. Of those left, 97 percent are permanent
California residents and 3 percent are on H-1B visas.
Southern California Edison said it's contracting with IT vendors to
fulfill certain contracts and that most of those workers are permanent
U.S. residents and aren't working under H-1B visas.
"By transitioning some IT operations to external vendors, along with
SCE eliminating some customized functions it will no longer provide, the
company will focus on making significant, strategic changes that can
benefit our customers," Southern California Edison's emailed statement
read.
But the senators, in their letter, raised several questions about how
the replacements were being done. They said it appears the workers are
often not employees of the U.S. company laying off workers – but are
contractors working for foreign-owned IT consultants.
The H-1B program stipulates that applicants must have a valid
“employer-employee relationship” – and the senators questioned whether
that was the case here.
They also asked whether the companies “engaged in prohibited
citizenship status discrimination” (against American citizens); and
whether the visa petitions showed “any evidence of misrepresentation or
fraud.”
Sessions said in a statement that the SCE allegations “ought to be
the tipping point that finally compels Washington to take needed actions
to protect American workers.”
The letter from senators follows a hearing last month by the Senate
Judiciary Committee, which invited Southern California Edison to
testify, though the company declined.
Ronil Hira, a professor at Howard University, said at the hearing
that the utility outsourced work to two companies, and those companies
employed H-1B staffers who were then trained by the employees they were
replacing. "There could not be a clearer case of the H-1B program being
used to harm American workers' wages and working conditions," Hira said.
Republican senators seeking the investigation are Sessions, Charles
Grassley of Iowa, James Inhofe of Oklahoma, and Bill Cassidy and David
Vitter of Louisiana.
Democratic senators seeking the investigation are Durbin, Richard
Blumenthal of Connecticut, Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Claire McCaskill of
Missouri.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, also signed the letter.