H-1B workers have minimal skills: Infosys whistleblower

Says it and other foreign firms are abusing visa laws; alleges Infosys' global HR head said law would follow business & business would not follow law

The H-1B workers who replace Americans have minimal skills and little or no business knowledge, a self-described whistle-blower from  information technology (IT) giant Infosys has said and asked lawmakers not to   increase the number of these much-sought visas and, instead, plug the loopholes in the immigration system.

Jay B Palmer, whose case against Infosys had led to a $34-million visa fraud settlement, largest in US’ history,   alleged no matter who are chosen, no matter what their skill set is, H-1B workers, coming to the US, have to learn the needed skills once they get here.

“The idea of knowledge transfer is absurd; Americans are training these people on how to do their job,” Palmer told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee during a Congressional on immigration hearing on Tuesday.

“These are just cold hard facts. As statistics can validate, most of these workers have only a bachelor’s degree: how is this specialised talent?” he said.

Palmer alleged companies, such as Infosys, continue to abuse the B1 and H1B visa laws as well as the income tax and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) guidelines.

“This is widespread within the US. Americans are being displaced at record numbers. Foreigners are working full-time jobs in the US without paying income taxes and are not qualified,” he said.

“In these difficult times, it is inconceivable that Infosys and other foreign companies are avoiding to pay income taxes, abusing visa laws, and then laughing and saying: ‘law will follow business, business will not follow law’. This quote is from Nandita Gurjar, who was the global head of human resources of Infosys,” he alleged in his testimony.

“I have read statements from NASSCOM, stating if the cap is not increased and with the current visa restrictions, the Indian economy would suffer. Let me ask the committee, what about our economy? H1B workers spend a minimal amount of money in the US and a room is usually occupied by eight of these people. These are indentured servants and most of the time, they have to give kickback to their offshore managers,” he said.

“What about the years and years of ignoring law. These companies maliciously do not hire Americans and look at ways to circumvent policy and law instead of working with it. Look at the stock and growth of these large foreign companies in a down environment — they are not suffering,” he said.

“However, they are still asking for more ‘handouts’ to increase their margin. Every company is out to make a profit, but when you knowingly defraud the system, it is concerning. I have witnessed outsourcing companies bring over H-1B workers that have been trained by American workers and then they replaced the American workers,” he said.

“Does this not violate the spirit of the H-1B laws? The only specialised talent these workers have is they will work for low wages. These are tasks that an existing worker could perform,” Palmer said.