US senators question 9 IT firms over H1-B visas

[OhioChick]

Source: Business Standard

BS Reporters / Mumbai/New Delhi April 9, 2008


Despite an over 50 per cent drop in the number of H1-B visas issued to some Indian IT firms in 2007 against 2006, US Democrat senators Richard J Durbin and Charles E Grassley have written to nine Indian companies that figure among the top 25 recipients of approved H-1B visa petitions in 2007 seeking detailed information on how they use the visa programme.

The letters, which come ahead of the US elections in November, are part of an effort to determine if the H-1B programme is being used for its intended purpose to fill a temporary worker shortage.

The senators had written a letter on similar lines last May too.

The Indian IT firms are Infosys Technologies, Wipro, Satyam Computer Services, Cognizant Tech Solutions, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Patni Computer Systems, Larsen & Toubro Infotech, i-Flex Solutions and Mphasis.



Read more: http://www.business-standard.com/common/news_article.php?leftnm=lmnu9&subLeft=2&autono=319507&tab=r

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Good for senators Richard J Durbin and Charles E Grassley. It's about damn time someone started asking questions.

[Nickster]

1. Of course, my company used H-1B to fill all those IT jobs that we couldn't fill after we fired all

the existing IT staff. See? We fired them, then we had a worker shortage....H-1B to the rescue!

[OhioChick]

3. How "American" of Your Company.

They'll see....you get what you pay for.

[Nickster]

5. Tell me about it. I particularly like it when simple projects end up taking 6 months to complete.

Makes my life that much more difficult.

[OhioChick]

6. I hear you....

I'm so sick and tired of going into companies to fix what they screwed up. (and were paid a fortune for)

[Kittycat]

2. Ah yes... Tata - isn't that Clinton's Job Winning Baby?

:eyes:

[OhioChick]

4. Yep. n/t

[babylonsister]

7. Who determines who specifically gets the visas? Seems a roundabout

way to find this out. Is this another issue this admin is stonewalling on? K&R for Durbin and Grassley. Durbin is a scrapper!

[OhioChick]

8. This year it was a lottery...

H1-B lottery system continues

WASHINGTON: With US immigration authorities getting enough applications for H1-B visas coveted by Indian IT professionals within a week, a random lottery will pick the 65,000 lucky winners for 2009.

http://infotech.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2936967.cms

[BootinUp]

9. Its interesting, the names of those companies

seems like they choose English like names for some reason. Not all of them of course.

[hootinholler]

10. I wanna be a tata consultant! n/t

[OhioChick]

12. Why...Want a Salary Cut?

TCS cuts staff salaries in tune with tough times (TATA)

Source: Economic Times India

30 Jan, 2008, 0230 hrs IST,S Srinivasan

MUMBAI: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s largest software exporter, is effecting a small across-the-board cut in employee salaries based on the company’s performance in the third quarter, a move reflecting caution amid tough times for the outsourcing industry. A top company official confirmed the move while stock market analysts said TCS is sending signals that revenue growth has not met internal targets and employees can’t expect a big wage increase this year.

TCS has clipped a portion of the variable pay linked to its performance, effectively reducing an employee’s salary by about 1.5% for the January-March quarter, TCS executive director and global human resources head S Padmanabhan told ET. “We undertake a review of variable pay every quarter and this time, we decided to make an adjustment,” he said. “We will revisit it in April.”

This is the first time in two years that the IT giant has reduced the variable portion linked to company performance. Mr Padmanabhan said the outsourcing sector faces macroeconomic challenges, which had to be factored in the quarterly review. The variable pay related to individual performance has not been touched, he added.

“This can send a strong signal to the employees that revenues have not measured up to internal targets,” a Mumbai brokerage analyst said. “The cut is small and is unlikely to attract a howl of protests, but employees will get the message that all is not well with the sector. Instead of giving them a shock at the time of annual salary review, the management has sought to lower their expectations of wage inflation through this small cut,” the analyst said.

TCS had reported a 5% quarter-on-quarter revenue growth and 6.7% rise in net profit for October-December, in line with market expectations. It had expressed ‘cautious optimism’ in the face of fears over a US slowdown and reasserted its ability to manage the rise in rupee’s external value.


http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Outsourcing_woes_force_TCS_to_cut_salaries/articleshow/2741768.cms

[Thor_MN]

13. It's not that kind of Tatas...

[OhioChick]

14. Ooohh..... Gotcha.

:evilgrin:

[hootinholler]

15. ROFLMAO!

:rofl:

:evilgrin:

-Hoot

[ihavenobias]

11. Kick