Mon. March 09, 2009; Posted: 05:53 PM
CHARLOTTE, N.C., Mar 09, 2009 (McClatchy Newspapers - McClatchy-Tribune News Service via COMTEX) -- BAC | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Bank of America Corp. has been forced to withdraw job offers to a small number of foreign-born students, the latest sign of the government's tightening hold on the banking industry.
A provision of last month's massive stimulus bill, the Employ American Workers Act, essentially forbids banks that receive government money from hiring workers with H-1B visas for two years. Those visas allow companies to temporarily hire educated foreign workers for specialized occupations, and are often used by high-tech companies. A foreign worker can hold H-1B status for up to six years.
Hiring visa holders isn't normally such a point of contention for banks; even the largest users of the program, such as JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., apply for only a couple hundred H-1B visas each year. But banks are under increasing scrutiny from legislators who lent them billions in taxpayer dollars, and the industry's thousands of newly laid-off workers are apt to be angry over any hint that they were replaced by foreign workers.
The two senators who co-sponsored Employ American Workers rode that sentiment last month when the stimulus bill was passed.
"While we are suffering through the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the very least we can do is to make sure that banks receiving a taxpayer bailout are not allowed to import cheaper labor from overseas while they are throwing American workers out on the street," said Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
"There is no need for companies to hire foreign guest workers ... when there are plenty of qualified Americans looking for jobs," added Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. More:
http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/2214124/
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