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* Posts by john80224

11 publicly visible posts • joined 21 Jun 2013

Tata on trial: Outsourcer 'discriminated' against non-Asian workers, claim American staff

john80224

Nothing to See Here, Sadly.

This and age discrimination have been the practice conservatively for the past 15 years. Despite this being as clear cut as it can be barring Tata outright admitting to it, this probably won't be "proven". In the event it is, some nominal fine/damages/settlement will be assessed and the cycle will continue. "Nominal" may be a number that sounds big, e.g. InfoSys' $34 million, but really ineffective on the scale in which these companies operate and the infrequency of any challenges being anything substantial.

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H-1B visa applications from India plummet (and Trump can't claim credit)

john80224
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Re: Thanks, Trump

That's a fairly simplistic and somewhat indoctrinated conclusion.

As another mentioned, due to the cap on the visa having been filled anyway, these 70,000 have essentially no impact on how many are ultimately in the US or not.

More importantly, your question alludes to a vacuous assessment of how many of the H-1B is most commonly used. If those jobs no longer have value to be done onshore, then the H-1B isn't going to be brought here in the first place--somewhat the point Stuart Anderson (who calls himself NFAP) is trying to make, that it was business conditions not Trump that caused the shift.

Now to those that still are coming to replace people onshore. In those abuses of the visa the rate at which the replacement worker is spending domestically is significantly less than the rate at which the replaced worker was. Additionally, the abuse has led to a laid off worker receiving unemployment in the short run and very likely spending less and paying less tax for the remainder of his/her career in many cases.

If the abusive use of the visa was stopped, we'd only need about 1/3 of the roles it was filling to remain onshore but in domestic hands to come out even or ahead.

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Disney sued in race row: Axed IT workers claim jobs went to H-1B hires

john80224
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Re: No middle man

That's what Disney did and why this lawsuit just like the last will fail.

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john80224
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Re: only one side of the story

With all due respect to fair consideration, etc., this story has been told far too many times across far too many companies and so terribly fails the smell test that I', quite comfortable giving the individuals the benefit of the doubt over the companies. A few laid off? Maybe it's different. But the likelihood that entire departments are all not qualified and should've been fired long ago is outside of "a reasonable doubt". At Disney in particular, the many times corroborated story is that a good number of the laid off had been recently commended for exceptional work performed.

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john80224
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Agreed. One of the major flaws in the law is that workers can really only go after the company with which they were associated, Disney in this case. While clearly the company Disney is working with discriminates with impunity on basis of national origin (also a protected class under US law), they had not removed the Disney employees. Anyone approaching basic mental competence can see the net effect, but the piecemeal nature of the laws is not going to pan out the way Americans think it would.

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john80224
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Re: Clear Violation

Sadly, what the program is and what it sounds like it is are two very different things.

Only a small amount of the cases require any sort of attestation that an attempt to hire an American/permanent resident occurred, and even that is little more than a flimsy paper tiger. The USCIS even posted a clarification a few years ago stating specifically that the visa can be used to hire a foreign worker when a reasonable US candidate exists.

The continued failure of lawsuits points to the law itself not matching what clearly most Americans would think it means, i.e. a means to reasonably fill actual gaps in our skillsets, not a means to replace or ignore those domestic skillsets that do exist.

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Donald Trump dumps on Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg

john80224
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Re: Good for Trump

Reality probably lies somewhere in between. Were it so interchangeable to move wholesale, most of the companies most likely would have done so. Those that are in the US appear to have some reason to do so. Would shutting down the supply be a nudge towards leaving? Yes. Would it force all to? Of course not. Footprint sizes may change geography, but none of us can do much more than theorize to what extent.

There's a balance to be reached and I'm not suggesting we close down all immigration, but using the visa system as a way to discriminate against and cause domestic workers lose interest in supposedly critical fields is not going to bode well for the US in the long.

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Tata says USA rejecting HALF of Indians' work visa requests

john80224

Oh the irony

The irony of NASSCOM complaining about "discriminatory" behavior us fabulously rich. A business model that discriminates against four protected classes specifically defined in the law (ethnicity, age, gender, religion) and in general one so axiomatic it's implied (citizens) along with skirting pay provisions in immigration law and ignoring labor condition laws now cries foul when a loophole they exposed may be closed. Apparently US law is only good when it can be avoided.

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India's outsourcers fume over new US immigration bill

john80224
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Re: Not making sense

Just to be clear it is also offshoring. Infy, Cognizant, etc. will also use these visas to staff analysts who forward requirements for the work to be done offshore. I'm not at all arguing the truth of what you indicated, just pointing out that both aspects are heavily relying on this visa.

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john80224
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Re: Ummm

The 15bn is his taxes figure. Those would be spent here (at least mostly). But given the wage arbitrage of these companies, that probably represents $3-10bn less in taxes than if they staffed legitimately.

As to the wages being spent here or there, global GDP gains tend to favor the rich or the locales where the increases occur. Sure, some then flows onward, etc., but I have a very hard time believing raising another poorer nation's productivity has a profound positive effect on 99% of the richer nation's populace.

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john80224

"There is discrimination because it is based on visa dependent companies versus non-visa dependent companies" - Som Mittal, NASSCOM

There is "discrimination" in every decision. Most forms of it are perfectly acceptable. Choosing chocolate over strawberry ice cream is discriminating, too. Do you know what else is discriminating? Excluding citizens from legitimate consideration in your business model in their own nation. NASSCOM BLATANTLY practices age, race and gender discrimination--three forms that ARE actually legally defined forms of wrongful discrimination--with religion at least anecdotally lumped in as well. The combination of hubris, disdain, ignorance and/or stupidity in his comment is astounding.

And just how many billions of tax dollars are being lost from under-/unemployed workers, suppressed wages and unemployment benefits?

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