$17800 H1B backwages paid
By Shalini Singh

Every year the US allocates 85000 H1B Visas (20000 of which are reserved for students doing higher degrees in America) for specialized workers needed in the country.  The ground reality is that Indian tech firms have taken the largest share of this temporary working visa quota.  While many Indian tech firms treat their H1B employees well, there are some bad apples.  And some rotten apples. In the early days, many Indians sent on H1B Visa were only given boarding and pocket money of $75 a day.

Texas based Computer Careers and Consulting is a privately held company and was founded in 1996 to provide software and HR services to the American tech industry. On its website it claims to have a 200 percent annual growth.  It says it clients include giants like EDS, Oracle and Discovery Channel.

But despite a 200 percent growth and a claim on their official site of being ‘informal and transparent’ with their employees, one of their ex employees lodged a complaint with the US Department of Labour claiming he was not paid his dues.

Chron is reporting that the US Government has now ordered Computer Careers and Consulting President and CEO Sri Neela to pay backwages to at least 8 Indians imported on H1B Visas

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Computer Careers and Consulting in Pearland has agreed to pay $17,831 in back wages to eight foreign computer programmers and system analysts after a Labor Department investigation found they hadn't been paid properly.

The government investigation found the company failed to pay the workers for periods of time when they were hired to work but were not given work to do, made improper wage deductions and didn't use the correct prevailing wage on its foreign labor applications for the H-1B visa program.
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