Slashdot Mirror
Disney Making Laid-Off US Tech Workers Train Foreign H1-B Replacements
WheezyJoe writes: The NY Times brings us a story on the Disney Corporation laying off U.S. tech workers and replacing them with immigrants visiting the country under H1-B visas. The twist is that the immigrant workers are not your nice local visiting foreign guy from the university who wants to stick around 'cause he likes the people here... they are employees of foreign-based consulting companies in the business of collecting H1-B visas and "import[ing] workers for large contracts to take over entire in-house technology units." The other twist? The U.S. tech workers are required to train their replacements before vacating their jobs, or risk losing severance benefits (excerpts of the Disney's layoff notice are included in the article).
Very obviously whoever made this smart decision never had to do a hostile takeover of an internal project. You get all the information you ask for, not one word more. You don't know what questions to ask? Wow, sucks to be you.
I really doubt it will be any different in this case. They will give them all the information they have to relay to ensure they cannot be considered hostile, while leaving out everything that "they assumed that the new guy already had to know". It's just common sense, ya know? Everyone knows that. Ask around in the office, everyone will tell you that this is something you really don't have to spell out simply because it's OBVIOUS. It's not to your new hire? Gee, maybe you should have hired someone who knows his trade? Ok, I'll make sure the new tech will learn everything from now on and explain it all to him. Ok. Look, new guy. This here we call a hammer...
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Sadly, intentionally trashing systems on the way out is illegal and can lead to jail time but manufacturing labor shortage and manipulating H1Bs is not.
On the other hand, pastebin leaks if done properly can be nearly untraceable.
I feel for those workers; I had to train my replacement once, when the company I worked for was bought up by an American company, and the UK locations closed down. Fucking soul-destroying.
Oh no... it's the future.
Do any of my fellow IT workers see 200k more IT jobs than domestic workers can fill?
The contents of this message have been doubly encrypted by ROT13
...whom I'm friends with, they say that of the 250 notified, only about 50-60 left the company because most were able to stay in the same field/department. The reason for the staff change is for a large system replacement being provided by an Indian software company. The people who left were maintaining very old systems that needed replacement...we're talking green screens here. Now, I'm not saying I agree with the concept of the hard push for increasing H1-B employees in the US, but there may be more to the story than what was presented in the article.
How is Disney worse? I think Disney only fired about 130 Americans.
US tech companies hire tens, maybe hundreds, of thousands of guest workers. Often making American workers train their H1B replacements. At best displacing US workers.
In 2009 Bill Gates sat before the US congress, and explained that the tech industry was suffering from huge shortages, and desperately needed more foreign guest workers. At the same time, Microsoft was laying off thousands of US workers.
You can pretend to know something about me if you want, but actually I'm only part of the problem for people who are afraid of competition. And no, I don't get paid less than the employees - I get paid more. Always. Because I'm good.
How nice for you. I guess we should all just become superstar consultants and we wouldn't have a problem. Can everyone be in the top 5%? I'm thinking that's not possible.
You come off as pretty arrogant; basically telling people that if they didn't suck so much and were more awesome like yourself, they wouldn't care if people were trying to undercut their wages by making them compete with desperate people willing to settle for much less, because companies would just throw money at their awesomeness. I'm glad companies throw money at your awesomeness, but you seem to have an advanced or rare skill set making your example inapplicable to many other situations.
"What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
H1Bs instead need to be paid more than the prevailing wage for the position, the theory being that they will therefore not be favoured over Americans.
Here's how it *really* works:
First, realize that the largest two companies who hoover up H1-B visas are... companies HQ'd in India. Infosys and Tata, to be specific, who combined swallow the vast majority of the visas. They in turn offer their 'consultants' to companies like Disney on a contract basis. This in turn means that Disney actually pays way less per head... here's why:
* The contractor status of each H1-B means that Disney no longer has to pay the 401k/insurance/regulatory/etc costs that they would have to pay an employee, thus cutting their base cost per head by roughly half.
* To comply with your assertion (which is correct, BTW), Disney pays Tata/Infosys something like 110% of the typical posted (not actual, but "posted") salary for the job per head, thus fulfilling your requirement, but still saving Disney roughly half the cost per head or more, depending on what they were paying the guy that the H1-B replaced.
* Tata/Infosys in turn pay their 'consultants' a pittance - say 50-70% of what they get - which generates profit for them.
Now you may be thinking that the consultants are victims, but in reality they're not: In return, the H1-B 'consultant' comes here, busts his ass, and tries like Hell to find a means to stay here permanently. He doesn't mind the pittance, because he's after the opportunity to stay on after the contract is up. Failing that, he is still infinitely more marketable job-wise back in India once he returns, so it's all upside for him, in exchange for busting ass here.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
The whole story of why we "need" H1-B workers is because we have a need for more workers in a specialized field. The American Reinvestment and Recovery act also specifically is supposed to stop this kind of crap.
>The employer must, prior to filing the H-1B petition, take good-faith steps to recruit U.S. workers for the position for which the H-1B worker is sought, offering a >wage at least as high as what the law requires for the H-1B worker. The employer must also attest that, in connection with this recruitment, it has offered the job >to any U.S. worker who applies who is equally or better qualified for the position.
>The employer must not have laid off, and will not lay off, any U.S. worker in a job essentially equivalent to the H-1B position in the area of intended employment >of the H-1B worker within the period beginning 90 days prior to the filing of the H-1B petition and ending 90 days after its filing.
This act is antithetical to the whole act. I really do not understand how this is still legal based on the above.
The U.S. tech workers are required to train their replacements before vacating their jobs, or risk losing severance benefits
SOOOooooooo.....
They can obviously find Americans who can do the jobs.
So why do they need H1B workers ?
Only takes one disgruntled employee to burn the whole place to the ground.
Just sayin'...
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Not true. Dana Rohrabacher did.