Techies win $638000 back wages
By Bala Shah

The US had set up the H-1B visa program to hire on a short term basis highly skilled workers not available in America. While most Indian tech firms win contracts based on their quality computing skills and competitive costs and treat their H1B techies well, there are others which exploit Indians at every opportunity.  The US Govt has announced huge penalties for one such firm..

This misuse by some Indian body shops of the H1B Visas not only harms Americans, but it has a negative affect on skilled Indian techies as well. Many Indian techies sent to USA and Europe by India based IT firms were given only $40,000 a year even as they were being billed out on $80-100,000 per annum.  Sadly, some Indian techies and BPO workers were treated no better than cattle. Some Gurgaon based BPO workers even had their passports taken away once they reached USA.  For short term profits, a handful of Indian mafia managers sacrificed a long term healthy working relationship with some Americans and Indians as well.

The recession in America coupled with the lobbying by the anti outsourcing movement have forced the US Government to crack down on the loopholes in the H1B Visa system and raise the fees for temporary techie workers coming to America.  Recently, an American state Ohio banned offshoring.  Unlike the liberal free market policies of the Bush Government, Obama has tightened rules for techies to come and work in America.

This week the US Department of labour obtained a consent order under which Peri Software Solutions Inc. and its owner, Saravanan Periasamy, have agreed to pay $638,449 in back wages and interest to 67 workers for violating the H-1B provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

The Newark Company sponsored the H-1B non-immigrant workers to work as programmer analysts across the country.

Under the order, Peri Software Solutions Inc. and Periasamy also must pay $126,778 in civil money penalties and interest for failing to provide notice of the filing of labor condition applications at each place where any H-1B worker was to be employed and for filing lawsuits against H-1B workers for early cessation of employment. The company and Periasamy will be debarred from participating in the H-1B program for one year. Over the years, Peri had been authorized to import about 190 techies on H1B Visas.

"Peri Software not only took advantage of these workers by not properly compensating them, it also violated the part of the law that provides the greatest protection to the American workforce," said Nancy J. Leppink, deputy administrator of the department's Wage and Hour Division. "When companies participating in the H-1B program do not post filed labor condition applications, they clearly undercut American workers who may be qualified for available employment but aren't aware of it."

Since 2005, investigations conducted by the department's Wage and Hour Division have resulted in more than $5.6 million in back wages and $300,000 in civil money penalties in New Jersey, not including this case. The most common violations found were the employers' failure to post notice of the filing of labor condition applications at every worksite where an H-1B worker may be employed, and failure to pay non-immigrant workers the required wage rate for all nonproductive time caused by conditions related to employment, such as lack of assigned work, lack of a permit or studying for a licensing exam.