The U.S. government is looking into Sun Microsystems’ hiring practices after an ex-employee filed complaints alleging that the Santa Clara firm discriminates against American citizens in favor of foreign workers on H1-B visas.
It’s about time H1B abuse got some attention – there are entire companies in the Silicon Valley that hire nothing but H1Bs, and solely because they’re cheap and obedient workers who can be threatened with deportation if they don’t slave away for peanuts. And there are those who mix H1Bs with Americans who use the threat of layoff and transfer of duties to an H1B to better exploit the Americans. In this economy both are common, and I could name names, yes I could.
Not to mention the fact that the H1B workers can’t even change jobs very easily, until they get a green card. The employers know this, and exploit it.
Plenty wrong with the H1B mess in Silicon Valley, I’d agree. And I’ll bet you could name names, as could I.
Holy smokes… don’t anybody mention this to the guys I work for, or they might start exploiting me,too!
FYI: TN (NAFTA) and H1B visas are tied to a specific company. If I quit my job, I’d be expected to return to the border and hand over my H1B in some reasonably span of time.
H1-B abuse is so common, it passes through everyone’s radar screen these days.Hopefully, all this will change over time, but not until employers are held accountable.
From a more libertarian perspective, you could easily argue that the flaws really lie in the over-regulation of the H1-B. If the H1-B was treated like a temporary green card, and not a de-facto bonded labor agreement, then the H1-B holder would be less beholden to the employer, would feel free to leave if work conditions turned bad, etc.. It would also raise the cost of hiring H1-B holders for unscruulous companies, who might then look for more domestic talent.
Problems like this are almost invariably the result of unintended consequences arising out of well-intentioned regulations.
UK banned H1B visas last month.