Indian firm fined $45,000 for jobs ads
By Pulkit Sharma

It is an open secret that a handful of India-based IT companies and body shops have used every legal trick in the book to use the American working visa system (aka H-1B) to their advantage.  The idea was to corner the H-1B working visas, import skilled but competitive priced Indians, and make huge profits for the owners of such companies.  The American Government this month fined iGate Mastech Inc $45,000 for publicly placing online job ads asking only H-1B visa holders to apply.

According to the US Department of Justice, it is illegal to give preferences to H-1B workers over US citizens since 2000.  The theory being that H-1B visas should only be allocated to highly skilled overseas tech workers who are needed to fill vacancies in their fields.  The ground realities are slightly different.

The Mastech website (//www.igatemastech.com) states: “Founded in 1986 and headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Mastech is a $100M subsidiary of global IT/BPO provider iGATE Corporation (NASDAQ: IGTE), providing human capital management services in Information Technology and Brokerage Operations. Mastech's round-the-clock Global Recruiting Centers combine speed and experience to find the best possible talent, in the most demanding niche skills”.

Mastech, USA has a number of respected Indians working in it.  The company website gives their background and experience.   The Executive Vice President, Recruiting Human Resources, Murali Balasubramanyam, has over two decades of experience in the IT industry and three decades in human resource experience.

The V-P,   Immigration and Compliance, Tripti Noorani,  oversees the Immigration and Compliance Department at Mastech. Since joining Mastech in 1990, Ms. Noorani has been instrumental in the processing of more than 20,000 H1-B Visas,  and more than 2,000 Green Cards for Mastech employees.

The Director of Global Recruitment Centers, India for Mastech is Akanksha Malik who has eleven years of industry experience in varied leadership roles across international program management, training, test center management, instructional design, and usability specialization and client relationship management in her role at Mastech; Ms. Malik’s deep experience with offshore delivery models, eLearning, quality assurance, Six Sigma and process management help ensure smooth process education to Mastech’s employees, quality assurance and process for our clients, and overall training for the organization.

According to a Mastech insider who spoke on condition of anonymity, most of the senior Indian executives were unaware of the breach of the law.  A few rogue elements in the company who had taken such initiatives have been disciplined and asked to follow the American laws in letter and spirit.