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Disney IT Workers, In Lawsuit, Claim Discrimination Against Americans (computerworld.com)

dcblogs quotes a report from Computerworld: After Disney IT workers were told in October 2014 of the plan to use offshore outsourcing firms, employees said the workplace changed. The number of South Asian workers in Disney technology buildings increased, and some workers had to train H-1B-visa-holding replacements. Approximately 250 IT workers were laid off in January 2015. Now 30 of these employees filed a lawsuit on Monday in U.S. District Court in Orlando, alleging discrimination on the basis of national origin and race. The Disney IT employees, said Sara Blackwell, a Florida labor attorney who is representing this group, "lost their jobs when their jobs were outsourced to contracting companies. And those companies brought in mostly, or virtually all, non-American national origin workers," she said. The lawsuit alleges that Disney terminated the employment of the plaintiffs "based solely on their national origin and race, replacing them with Indian nationals." The people who were laid off were multiple races, but the people who came in were mostly one race, said Blackwell. The lawsuit alleges that Disney terminated the employment of the plaintiffs "based solely on their national origin and race, replacing them with Indian nationals."

248 of 455 comments (clear)

  1. Except they didn't. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They didn't terminate them "based solely on their national origin and race"

    They terminated them based on the fact they can pay Indian workers a fraction of the salary.

    1. Re:Except they didn't. by hawguy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      They didn't terminate them "based solely on their national origin and race"

      They terminated them based on the fact they can pay Indian workers a fraction of the salary.

      Did they offer the Americans an equivalent salary?

    2. Re:Except they didn't. by Narcocide · · Score: 5, Informative

      No, because (somewhat ironically) its illegal to pay Americans that little.

    3. Re:Except they didn't. by hawguy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No, because (somewhat ironically) its illegal to pay Americans that little.

      The lawsuits says that workers were "brought-in", and were mostly H1-B holders. H1-B holders need to be paid market salary.

      There's not much the workers can do about jobs that are actually off-shored, but if they were laid off and replaced by Indian H1-B workers who are working locally to transition to off shore teams only because they were not Indian, then they may have a case.

    4. Re: Except they didn't. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

      The h1b min wage needs to be 80k-110k

    5. Re:Except they didn't. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Missing the point.

      H1B needs to be brought in for salary based on their position.

      Big-indian-outsourcing-company, advertises their jobs at $5 per hour. Somehow wangles H1-B ( as in, no americans want to be contract engineers at $2.50 per hour, but indians do so being them in ).

      Outsourcing company ( read TATA ) now contacts as a U.S company, to another U.S company (disney) to do their IT.

      The spirit of the law is mangled to completely unrecognizable pulp.

      But the law is obeyed.

      Dunno what the fix is. But stop yelling about "bought-in-replacements", you'e missing the loop hole and it's important to understand

    6. Re:Except they didn't. by ghoul · · Score: 3, Informative

      Not if a job requirement was specified as being able to speak in Telugu. Boom your discrimination lawsuit has as much chance of guys filing a discrimination lawsuit against stripclubs hiring girls only

      --
      **Life is too short to be serious**
    7. Re:Except they didn't. by ghoul · · Score: 1

      Nope H1Bs are not paid less than Americans. They however do work a lot longer hours including taking phone calls with offshore at night. As these are salaried positions there is no overtime only promise of progress within the companies. American employees who had been working standard 9-5 jobs may not be willing to work longer hours and take calls at night. That is why these companies prefer H1Bs as their onsite presence (after considering the cost of visas H1Bs are actually more expensive). Plus if the offshore team has some communication and cultural mismatch issues the H1Bs will act as a buffer instead of demeaning the offshore teams for their accents. (I will concede you the right to make fun of other peoples English accent once you can speak at least one language besides English. Till then you are just being an ignorant dick)

      --
      **Life is too short to be serious**
    8. Re:Except they didn't. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "Nope H1Bs are not paid less than Americans. They however do..."

      get paid less. It's magic.

      And they cannot change jobs, so you can ramp up their hours, ramp down their conditions, etc. If they don't like it, all they can do is leave the country, or get another sponsor, which is almost impossible and risky, as their current employer is almost certain to find out they are looking. See "ramp down their conditions, etc."

      We should be bringing the people we actually think are worth having in on work visas as real workers with rights. If they could simply leave if not paid enough or treated poorly, and be hired by someone who values them, the bottom would completely drop out of this racket.

    9. Re:Except they didn't. by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      I'd think there may still be non-salary benefits to employing foreigners like this. Does the Sword of Damocles still apply to H1Bs? As in, if you lose your sponsor, you go home? Perhaps this gives employers extra leverage when it comes to making the foreigners work their asses off.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    10. Re:Except they didn't. by plopez · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "They however do work a lot longer hours"

      I have never seen either onshore or offshore Asians works more than 40 hrs a week while my US co-workers covered for them out of hours or during their month long holidays. I have seen US workers work on Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and the 4th of July (which should be illegal IMHO) only to be laid off. I don't buy it.

      --
      putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
    11. Re:Except they didn't. by Baloo+Uriza · · Score: 2

      No, because (somewhat ironically) its illegal to pay Americans that little.

      The lawsuits says that workers were "brought-in", and were mostly H1-B holders. H1-B holders need to be paid market salary.

      If it's anything like the way Intel does things in Hillsboro, yeah, that's not happening. They just lied to INS to get H1B visas and are paying 'em less than a Taco Bell manager makes.

      --
      Furries make the internet go.
    12. Re:Except they didn't. by hey! · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Except if you do it through a third party company that's all at arm's length, and nobody bothers enforcing that law anyway. We all know that's true. So the risk to Disney is minimal.

      What they're doing with this lawsuit is hitting Disney where it lives -- reputation. What's going to happen is that if Disney doesn't settle, Disney will win on the basis that it's not illegal to discriminate against Americans. How do you think that will go over?

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    13. Re: Except they didn't. by TWX · · Score: 1

      The H1B position itself must not be used to displace existing workers.

      In fact, it's not supposed to be able to do that.

      What I think they need to do is to enforce the law that H1B isn't to displace existing workers, and that this needs to be based on effective position and on facility rather than on the company finally paying the end-worker. If no one will obey this or they manage to work around it then the law needs to be changed to further strengthen it.

      I do not have a problem with people looking to come to the United States to work, but I have a big problem with Americans being fired in order to specifically hire foreign workers.

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    14. Re:Except they didn't. by somenickname · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It seems like it would be a pretty easy loophole to close: If you are hiring H1-B workers, the department you are hiring them into cannot be comprised of more than X% of H1-B workers. If you want to pick up 100 H1-B workers for $5.00 an hour, that's fine. But, you might need 900 non-H1-B workers to qualify for that many H1-Bs. And, if you can't find 900 local workers that are willing to work for the wages you are offering, maybe this isn't the right country for your business and you should move it to where your workforce resides.

    15. Re:Except they didn't. by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      American's pay / 40 hours = X per hour
      Equivalent to American's pay / long hours = much less than X per hour

      Therefore they get paid less.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    16. Re:Except they didn't. by plopez · · Score: 2

      That's the fallacy of "Globalization" right there. It does not pull people up, it drags them down. Instead of better salaries, worker and environmental protection laws, investments in infrastructure, and overall improves quality of life it does just the opposite. That is why it must be destroyed.

      --
      putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
    17. Re:Except they didn't. by Luthair · · Score: 1

      If they're H-1B workers then it seems like the Department of Labor isn't failing its responsibility to ensure foreign workers don't displace US workers - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    18. Re:Except they didn't. by currently_awake · · Score: 2

      Mandating that for every H1B you hire, you must also hire and train 1 American worker, and then switch to the American worker (H1B limited time offer) would fix the problem.

    19. Re: Except they didn't. by currently_awake · · Score: 1

      Giving H1B workers American citizenship after 2 years would allow them to demand better pay and/or reasonable hours.

    20. Re: Except they didn't. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Minimum salary for h1b by law is $60,000. No requirement on benefits other than obamacare. They get alot less. Limits on where they can work. If fired and dont find a new job in 3 months they have to leave the country. Frequently forced to sign contracts in india with penalties in india if they quit for more money.

      I work with h1bs. Have for years. Always the lowest paid people on the team by alot. You can google h1b law. Wikipedia explains salary. There is even a government page that lists all h1b wage by company and job. The wages are much lower than for americans.

      This idiot is blowing smoke

    21. Re:Except they didn't. by yuriklastalov · · Score: 1

      Just give them a few years, I'm sure we'll be automating way judges and lawyers before too long.

      Because who doesn't want the law to be enforced 100% pedantically with no regard for nuance? I know I do!

    22. Re:Except they didn't. by yuriklastalov · · Score: 1

      Almost. It's equalizing poverty. You see, people in America have been living it up for far too long, and it's time to bring them down a peg or twenty, somewhere around the per capita of say, Brazil.

      But it's fine, just think of all the poor foreigners who have better lives while you're waiting in a bread line. It's for the good of humanity! Be a good global citizen now, don't ask questions.

    23. Re:Except they didn't. by dbIII · · Score: 1

      H1-B holders need to be paid market salary

      Only on paper.
      There are many scams such as forcing them to pay various fees back to the company that has employed them at market salary.

    24. Re:Except they didn't. by the_Bionic_lemming · · Score: 5, Interesting

      No, the easiest way is to feel sorry for the H1B having to leave their homeland and live in the US. They should therefore earn the median computing wage in the area plus a 40% bonus for living expenses. After all, they have no home here, and will have to rent or buy. They should also gain a company car since obviously they can't bring whatever transportation they have in their old country.

      Also, free air fare to visit their relatives at least once a month - and on holidays. Can't have them being sad or missing their family.

      I would be happy with that in place for H1B's.

      --
      _ _ _ Go for the eyes Boo! GO FOR THE EYES!
    25. Re: Except they didn't. by TWX · · Score: 1

      I wouldn't give citizenship specifically, but a different kind of visa, basically to allow for the worker to be a Permanent Resident Alien, where they are acknowledged as being allowed to be here regardless of work status.

      Basically I'm generally in-favor of rules that benefit the worker. I want Americans to retain their jobs and not be replaced by companies soliciting for immigrant workers to drive wages down. If immigrant workers are necessary because of a real and true dearth of an existing workforce (and I would like to see employers have to jump through large numbers of hoops outside of academia in order to prove this) then I would like to see those workers hired as a result of those conditions secure in their positions as well; don't want to see a sword of Damocles hanging over their heads where the employer uses the threat of deportation to depress wages. Depressed wages hurt all workers, including American workers.

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    26. Re:Except they didn't. by ranton · · Score: 1

      > Not if a job requirement was specified as being able to speak in Telugu.

      I hate to be a party pooper. But courts are capable of seeing through something that transparent.

      Telugu is not some made up language. It is a real language native to India, and if the outsourcing company is using two Indian natives for every one local employee, it is very reasonable for the job requirements to include speaking the language. Nothing for the courts to refute.

      --
      -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
    27. Re:Except they didn't. by davester666 · · Score: 1

      Assumes a fact no in evidence...that there is anyone in Congress or the Senate that is at all interested in actually ensuring that the H1B program is not abused.

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
    28. Re:Except they didn't. by ranton · · Score: 2, Insightful

      That's the fallacy of "Globalization" right there. It does not pull people up, it drags them down.

      The problem with Globalization is not that its benefits are a fallacy, it's that its benefits are not evenly distributed. The greatest gains are to those with enough capital to invest in companies which benefit from global markets. Then there are those in developing countries, such as China where the average salary has tripled in the last decade. The professional class in developed countries also benefit greatly, such as in the USA where 2/3 of the people leaving the middle class are moving into the upper middle class.

      Then there is the working class in developed countries, who are likely to be hurt by globalization. They get to take advantage of lower priced goods like everyone else, but only if they stay employed. Most of them do stay employed, but it only takes a few percentage points of the population to lose out for millions of people to be negatively affected.

      The problem is that the working class may be even worse off without globalization, since even cheap workers in developing countries are starting to have trouble competing with automation. Reduced globalization reduces the market for products the developed world still needs skilled working class employees for, and the working class still cannot compete with automation for the manufacturing brought back to the US.

      --
      -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
    29. Re:Except they didn't. by antdude · · Score: 1

      At my current workplace where I will be let go soon due to stupid 18 months/1.5 years time limit enforced by the former CEO, I have seen Chinese people work on weekends in China and USA. :/

      --
      Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
    30. Re:Except they didn't. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      > Telugu is not some made up language. It is a real language native to India,

      You dumbshit. I am from Gujarat. We don't speak telugu, but we sure as shit know what it is.

      I can't believe i have to spell it out for you. The courts can easily see through the circular logic of requiring language skills to work with the people in the outsourcing company for jobs being filled by the outsourcing company.

      Stop acting like the law is a computer program.

    31. Re:Except they didn't. by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 2

      Disney will win on the basis that it's not illegal to discriminate against Americans.

      You're not allowed to discriminate against people based on national origin. Why would Disney win on that basis?

      --
      Your ad here. Ask me how!
    32. Re:Except they didn't. by ZenShadow · · Score: 2

      One part of the fix should be that H1-B workers may only work on projects for the company that hires them. They may not then be contracted out as a low-cost talent pool to other companies.

      Seems to me that the Tata's of the world are doing exactly that, which is a clear abuse of the program.

      --
      -- sigs cause cancer.
    33. Re:Except they didn't. by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      It only equalises poverty among the poor.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    34. Re:Except they didn't. by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

      Gay people are mentally ill, technically speaking.

      If , by "technically", you mean "according to a bunch of criteria I made up to guarantee my conclusion while also ignoring evidence to the contrary" then yes, sure! If of course you mean based on any actual technical criteria, then no.

      I can't even go to the park to enjoy nature and smoke a bowl because it's a "gay park" and police are always having to watch out for perverts in the bathrooms giving each other blowjobs.

      This is unique to gay couples. Straight couples never get caught in public having sex. True story.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    35. Re:Except they didn't. by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      It isn't illegal. The H-1B workers need to get paid the same minimum wage as the Americans. The thing is getting a severe pay cut is worse then getting let go. When you are let go you can at least find an other job.
      The problem is that these H1-B workers don't know the cost of living so they agree to much lower pay

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    36. Re:Except they didn't. by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

      Unless you have a reason for them needing to speak this language, other than to exclude local talent then this will fall flat on it's face. You can't just put on the job listing that you need the person to speak klingon because you want someone to talk star trek with.

      --
      Wanna buy a shirt?
      https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
    37. Re:Except they didn't. by houghi · · Score: 1

      Perhaps it isn't the same people yelling. Or perhaps people look at what is good for them. I know, weird.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    38. Re: Except they didn't. by ghoul · · Score: 1

      I am a hiring manager in the valley and hire both citizens and H1Bs regularly. We are a consulting firm and always prefer Citizens as they can join at 2 weeks notice while H1Bs will take 6 weeks to process an H1 transfer with the additional 6000 dollar cost of an H1 transfer. In the people I have hired in the last 3 months we have paid from 90-125K. Noone gets paid 60K. I still end up hiring a lot of H1Bs. Its a demand and supply issue.
      So I am speaking from experience . Where are you pulling your facts from?

      --
      **Life is too short to be serious**
    39. Re:Except they didn't. by TheReaperD · · Score: 3, Funny

      Strangely enough, I saw an actual, honest job listing that required speaking fluent Klingon as a job requirement. It was for a psychiatric hospital who had gathered up shut in Star Trek nerds that refused to speak any other language and they wanted to try and treat them. Psychiatric experience was a plus but, the job requirement was for a Klingon-English translator. One of the only times I wish I knew Klingon as the salary and benefits were awesome for the time.

      --
      "Be particularly skeptical when presented with evidence confirming what you already believe." -
    40. Re: Except they didn't. by TheReaperD · · Score: 1

      Yes!

      --
      "Be particularly skeptical when presented with evidence confirming what you already believe." -
    41. Re:Except they didn't. by Ogive17 · · Score: 2

      My wife, though at the time we were just dating, was working in the US on a visa (don't know which one exactly). When it came time for her company to renew it, the government immediately revoked it and it took 3 months for her company to convince the government they could not find an equivalent American to do the job.

      Her job was an interpreter, Japanese/English. We live in Ohio, so not easy to find an American citizen that is fluent in written Japanese.

      Luckily her company paid the lawyers, otherwise it would have been $5k+ to go through the process.

      H1-B visas should be similar, you have to be able to prove you cannot find an American to take the job. Considering a large portion were laid off by Disney, it's hard to believe Disney has any sort of defense.

      But it comes down to who lines the pockets of the most senior official.

      --
      "Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
    42. Re:Except they didn't. by gatkinso · · Score: 1

      It may meet the legal threshold for discrimination. It may not. Not a lawyer, so...

      However, it may be that what you claim is precisely what they are trying to prove.

      --
      I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
    43. Re:Except they didn't. by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Most discrimination laws recognize obvious tricks like requiring foreign languages that are unrelated to the job. I don't know about your local laws but such tactics don't work in the UK.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    44. Re:Except they didn't. by ranton · · Score: 1

      You dumbshit. I am from Gujarat. We don't speak telugu, but we sure as shit know what it is.

      I am not from India, so I can only go off published data such as the Indian census, but there are apparently over 75 million native Telugu speakers in India. I agree it would be more common to have a Hindi language requirement, but it looks like there are still plenty of Indians speaking Telugu. Nearly all educated Indians may speak English as well, but almost every Indian/Chinese/Argentinian/etc. developer I have worked with was more comfortable speaking in their native tongue than English. If I had to manage a large team of offshore native Telugu speaking developers I would certainly want some local Telugu speaking contractors / employees to help communicate with them.

      --
      -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
    45. Re:Except they didn't. by ranton · · Score: 1

      It may be a rare language in India, but that still means over 75 million Indians speak Telugu natively. That is three times as many people that speak Dutch, for instance. So it may be rare, but if the offshore development shop is in Visakhapatnam then it wouldn't be unheard of for a number of them to speak Telugu natively.

      --
      -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
    46. Re:Except they didn't. by Zontar_Thing_From_Ve · · Score: 1

      "They however do work a lot longer hours"

      I have never seen either onshore or offshore Asians works more than 40 hrs a week while my US co-workers covered for them out of hours or during their month long holidays. I have seen US workers work on Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and the 4th of July (which should be illegal IMHO) only to be laid off. I don't buy it.

      I agree but I have a point to add. Sometimes people work longer if they're not very good at their jobs. It takes them longer to do everything so they stay late. Inevitably their staying late is always interpreted by management as being due to this person being an awesome worker. I've seen this kind of thing first hand. Back in the late 90s I was on a different job and a sister department to mine hired a new tester. They paid to move her there from another state and gave her big bucks too. Her co-workers told me that she was terrible at the job and she stayed late every day because it took her 2 or 3 times as long as everybody else in that group to do the same work. I remember seeing a copy of her resume after she was hired and it was full of flat out lies, but the manager was a woman with poor IT skills (she was moved into management simply to prove that it wasn't impossible for a woman to be in company management) who didn't ask for any outside help in interviewing this lady. The lady stuck around for a few years, barely getting her work done and eventually a non-IT job came open in the company that required some travel and customer meetings and she moved into that.

    47. Re:Except they didn't. by ranton · · Score: 1

      Unless you have a reason for them needing to speak this language, other than to exclude local talent then this will fall flat on it's face.

      There is a reason: so you can communicate with offshore staff more effectively. I have always enjoyed having a Hindi speaker with good English skills on my US-based team (usually H1B) when I have to work with India-based contractors. Communication is much simpler when they can speak in their native tongue than trying to do everything in English. In truth I usually have more trouble understanding their English than they do understanding mine, especially over the phone.

      --
      -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
    48. Re:Except they didn't. by mjwx · · Score: 1

      Not if a job requirement was specified as being able to speak in Telugu. Boom your discrimination lawsuit has as much chance of guys filing a discrimination lawsuit against stripclubs hiring girls only

      The problem is, well in most sane countries... is that you need to demonstrate a requirement to have that. Catholic or Muslim schools can list a requirement to have Catholic or Muslim teachers as that is something their clientele expect, even then it is usually limited to certain positions. So a cleaner at a catholic school cant be required to be a catholic, something like a stationary supply company cannot specify that applicants must be Catholic.

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
    49. Re: Except they didn't. by Cytotoxic · · Score: 1

      I have hired one H1B worker. She is an amazing lady with loads of talent and twice as much work ethic. She went to school here and then got a job working for me under her training visa, at the same wage as everyone else. In her H1B application we wrote up the requirements specific to her position. The expertise she gained working for us meant that it was not terribly likely there would be any US citizens applying with her qualifications. And even so, she's a top 1% person. Maybe top 0,1%, so no rational employer would pick an average candidate when they could have her. That was almost 20 years ago.

      After she was eligible, I sponsored her citizenship and paid for her attorney's fees. She is now a citizen, married with 3 kids and a tremendous asset to the community. Her husband was also a college immigrant who got a job with an H1B and eventually became a citizen. He started his own company and now he's doing really well, employing lots of Americans.

      That is my only H1B experience. If everyone on an H1B is like them, then we need more H1B visas, not less.

    50. Re:Except they didn't. by ninthbit · · Score: 1

      Because Disney isn't likely hiring them, a contract company out of India (such as TaTa is). From Disney's perspective, they are just contracting their support. Ironically, they have no say in who the contractor hires, save for things like background investigations.

      It's likely the contract company that needs to be sued, but they will pull the you need to be bilingual. It's also possible that because their low wage, Americans just aren't applying for the positions.

    51. Re:Except they didn't. by Foofoobar · · Score: 1

      Yes but they need them to admit that and then they can make a class action for firing employees based on the fact that HB1 workers are cheap slave labor.

      --
      This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is mine.
    52. Re:Except they didn't. by kilfarsnar · · Score: 2

      But it comes down to who lines the pockets of the most senior official.

      Yet when you suggest to an American that they live in an Oligarchy, they look at you like you're crazy.

      --
      "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
    53. Re:Except they didn't. by kilfarsnar · · Score: 1

      It's a bunch of sickos who try and equate the slight distaste some people have with their lifestyle to actual oppression experienced in the real civil rights movement. Really, I wouldn't care who your sexual partners were, but the "gay community" is judgmental, vindictive, and prejudiced.

      I see irony is not your strong suit. You say gay people have habits that contradict their healthy biological function (whatever that actually means), and call them sickos and perverts and mentally ill. But they're judgemental, vindictive and prejudiced. Got it.

      --
      "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
    54. Re:Except they didn't. by Bob+the+Super+Hamste · · Score: 1

      That level of compensation isn't high enough as you are missing some very important aspects of H-1B workers.
      1. These people have highly specialized skills that no American has.
      2. They need to be brought in right now because these companies can't operate while an American is trained to do the job.
      You don't have to take my word for it just ask all of these companies who are using H-1B visa holders they will say this is the case. Now since these people have a skill set that cannot be found in a country of 300+ million people this must be a truly specialized skill set that has required all sorts of advanced training and knowledge which automatically means that these people should be very highly compensated. Also since these companies can't continue without these employees they are obviously more critical than any of the CxO level employees as companies seem to continue on just fine without them while a search is going on.

      So given that it seems like an appropriate level of compensation for H-1B visa holders would that they are the highest compensated individuals at the company they are doing work for or are employed by. This means total compensation, base salary, bonuses, medical and dental benefits, relocation allowance, vehicle allowance, vacation, company paid travel, stock options, retirement plan, exit clauses, etc. since they are truly exceptional people that are absolutely critical.

      I say make that change and we can have unlimited H-1B visa holders enter the country. However like everyone on /. we known this to not be the case and instead these people are used to drive down wages. I have written my congress critters numerous times on this issue and the only response I have ever gotten was from Senator Amy Klobuchar who responded by basically saying that if it weren't for those evil republicans she would have done something about the H-1B program. Problem is she was pushing for just expanding the program with automatic additional expansions.

      --
      Time to offend someone
    55. Re:Except they didn't. by budgenator · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What people are missing is Disney laid-off the workers and contracted with Tata to provide the services that the employees were supplying previously. Tata is the company primarily discriminating against American Workers, the workers being tasked with training their replacements, strongly implies the American Workers were qualified, the USG (United States Government) needs to cancel the H1B visas because qualified American Workers were available, Tata needs to pay the former H1B the difference between what was paid to them and what the market rate was (what the former Disney employees were paid) then Tata needs to settle up for the discrimination with the qualified American Workers based on National Origin, then Disney needs to be accountable for creating a Hostile Work Environment by requiring their employees to the insulting (By Disney's CEO's own admission) training of their replacements.

      These things need to be made such a hot mess that CEOs break out in hives anytime H1B vistas are mentioned.

      --
      Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
    56. Re:Except they didn't. by ranton · · Score: 1

      I can't believe i have to spell it out for you. The courts can easily see through the circular logic of requiring language skills to work with the people in the outsourcing company for jobs being filled by the outsourcing company.

      It isn't circular logic. You hire an outsourcing company because they are much cheaper. They need liaisons in the US who can communicate with cheaper labor overseas (there is no requirement that overseas labor needs to be paid US-level wages). So it is perfectly reasonable that those US workers be able to effectively communicate in the overseas workers' native tongue.

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      -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
    57. Re:Except they didn't. by budgenator · · Score: 1

      I thought the Courts just decided that English only was a form of discrimination, shouldn't be hard to extend that into any "one language only".
      Interestingly my former Boss is a Salvadoran Native who worked in IT and supervised people on 5 continents, while everybody on the team spoke English, Jose was the only one on the team that could both understand everybody's English, but who's English everybody else could understand.

      --
      Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
    58. Re: Except they didn't. by Bob+the+Super+Hamste · · Score: 1

      $125k seem awfully low for the valley. I make more than that in a much lower cost state. When I get calls from companies out in CA or on the east coast I laugh at their offer and tell them they can't afford me. I'm not going to take a step down in my lifestyle when changing jobs. I always explain to them that to move from the midwest I would need to be able to afford:
      A ~2000 sq. ft. house on a .5 acre lot that backs up to a wooded park. It will be paid off in 10 years
      That house is in one of the best school districts in the state
      That house is within a 45 minute commute to work
      I am paying no more than 30% of my after tax income for housing
      I am able to save 30% of my income for retirement
      Outright own a multi acre wooded lake lot with over 200 feet of shore line within a 2 hour drive of my house.
      Near the lake property, within a couple of miles at most, there is a large amount of wooded public land open for recreational uses.
      So far none of those companies who have contacted me have even tried to negotiate as they aren't willing to pay me what would be needed to maintain that lifestyle. It doesn't have to be exact but I have a feeling that if I lived out the Silicon Valley I would have to be paid close to a million a year to get anything near what I currently have. Most of the time the offer is similar (+/- 10%) to my current wage but some have been substantially higher but not enough to maintain anywhere near my current standard of living. I do get more insulting offers than anything else which I have often though were attempts to show that there aren't American who can do the job so they can bring in H-1B holders. The worst was the $35k offer I had from one medical device company on the east coast that I really did laugh at and the HR person asked if that was a good offer and I told them "No, that's fucking terrible. I make over 3x that now and I don't have to live in Boston."

      --
      Time to offend someone
    59. Re:Except they didn't. by Shatrat · · Score: 1

      Maybe they do. I know I wouldn't do that job for less than 90 and they'd have to bring back the rockstar freeze.

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      09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
    60. Re:Except they didn't. by TheCastro1689 · · Score: 1

      You have to narrow it down to plutocracy.

    61. Re:Except they didn't. by Enigma2175 · · Score: 1

      Ironically, they have no say in who the contractor hires, save for things like background investigations.

      Of course they do, they can put any requirement they want in the contract. They can specify in the contract that no contractor eats brown M&Ms while on the job and they can certainly specify that they want all contractors to be citizens of the US.

      --

      Enigma

    62. Re:Except they didn't. by Rob+Y. · · Score: 1

      The problem is that the job the H1-B workers were brought in to do was not software development. They didn't hire H1-B workers to replace American workers - they hired them to train offshore workers to replace American workers. The role of the H1-B's is to work temporarily onsite, recording everything the American workers do - and then use those materials to train offshore workers, leaving one person behind to mediate between the product design folks and the offshore developers.

      Without the ability to mirror the Americans the whole process falls apart. To be honest, the whole process is a shitstorm even when it 'works' as planned. Productivity goes absolutely to hell - but that's another story. The mirroring process is in direct conflict with the stated goals of the H1-B program. And make no mistake about it, the stated purpose of H1-B is to lower the wages of American tech workers - hiding behind the occasional desire to hire the brilliant foreign Stanford graduate (which nobody objects to).

      In any case, this Indian outsourcing model is a perversion even of that, but one that is enabled by a loophole put into the H1-B law for precisely that purpose. Anybody want to take bets on whether Trump's 'America First' rhetoric will extend to closing that loophole?

      --
      Posted from my Android phone. Oh, I can change this? There, that's better...
    63. Re:Except they didn't. by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

      whatever that actually means

      He means breeding. I know this because I've tried to bash my head against this particular wall before. However, he refused to concede that gay people who do have kids are not mentally ill. He also seemed to think (because he is very wedded to the idea) that straight, voluntarily childless people are also mentally ill.

      Sadly, I see that my post pointing out the blatant homophobia is rapidly sinking towards -1, Flamebait.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    64. Re:Except they didn't. by Rob+Y. · · Score: 1

      But they're only cheaper if they can (pretend to) do the work. And that bit of sleight of hand is where the H1-B onsite workers come in. They facilitate the firing of the American workers by documenting their work processes. Those H1-B workers are not augmenting the Americans based on a shortage of available workers. It's a sham - allowed, apparently, by the H1-B law. But a sham nonetheless.

      --
      Posted from my Android phone. Oh, I can change this? There, that's better...
    65. Re:Except they didn't. by Notabadguy · · Score: 1

      If you can't understand the radical difference between these two (commonly referred to as apples and oranges); wherein one situation is a group of people being terminated from employment via imported replacements, and the other situation being a group of people offered poor wages for employment, then you don't deserve to be part of the conversation.

      If you want to draw a parallel, it would be to a non-existent situation in which taxi companies are making drivers train their replacements - who in turn work for much less, then laying off or terminating their employment. There's a near parallel to the automation of drivers coming in the future, but not yet.

      None of which applies to your awful comprehension, the reason you're not intellectually capable of participating in this conversation in a meaningful way - and the subsequent response you've garnered from me, written for the sole purpose of ensuring that logical fallacies are pointed out wherever they are purported to be wisdom.

    66. Re:Except they didn't. by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      -1 Flamebait for linking to evidence that contradicts the Slashdot narrative. This place is getting worse.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    67. Re:Except they didn't. by Abu+of+unruley+kids · · Score: 1

      I would work for as little as 2.50 USD / hour. I love programming, been doing it for 32 years, 20 off and on professionally. 2.50/hour programming is better than the general labor jobs I've been working recently.

    68. Re:Except they didn't. by superwiz · · Score: 1

      It's still illegal to pay anyone below minimal wage. Even if they are on guest-worker visa of any kind (H1B is not the only kind). It's not illegal to offer US citizens work at the minimal wage. It may be impractical, but if they have not tried it, the suit may have legs.

      --
      Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
    69. Re:Except they didn't. by superwiz · · Score: 2

      They should also have a right to unionize. And any attempts at unionization should not ever be an accepted reason for deportation. There. It becomes both a right-wing and a left-wing issue right away.

      --
      Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
    70. Re:Except they didn't. by superwiz · · Score: 1

      Yes, H1B is essentially human trafficking. But "qualification" is established through "advertising" for specific jobs... you know those ads you for positions which require X+5 years of experience with a skill which has only existed for X years. So the legal "qualification" cover-your-ass aspect of it has already been subverted. But yes, the migrants often do live in tight quarters saving up money to go back someday. Or they hope to get sponsorship for a green card after 5 years of working. So they are effectively either treated as sex-slaves or as de facto permanent residents without any of the permanent-resident legal protections.

      --
      Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
    71. Re:Except they didn't. by mjr167 · · Score: 1

      they can certainly specify that they want all contractors to be citizens of the US.

      Now that would be discriminating by national origin and is illegal. Even defense contractors can't do that. We cannot say "we only hire U.S. citizens". We have to say something along the lines of "the roles non-U.S. citizens can fill is limited".

    72. Re:Except they didn't. by hawguy · · Score: 1

      Mandating that for every H1B you hire, you must also hire and train 1 American worker, and then switch to the American worker (H1B limited time offer) would fix the problem.

      That's not really practical when you use the H1-B system as it was meant to bring in skilled workers that aren't available locally. My company has a strong international recruiting presence where we recruit PhD's and others at the top of their industry and bring them here under H1-B visas. We literally can't find all of the talent we need in the USA (we recruit heavily at American colleges too, but there really aren't that many people world-wide that have the skills and knowledge we're looking for). Having an H1-B worker do on-the-job training in some innovative specialized subject that they they developed after 7 - 10 years of college is just not practical.

      If the H1-B worker's knowledge is so commonplace that they could easily do on the job training of a replacement, then was that H1-B worker really needed?

    73. Re:Except they didn't. by hawguy · · Score: 1

      I would work for as little as 2.50 USD / hour. I love programming, been doing it for 32 years, 20 off and on professionally. 2.50/hour programming is better than the general labor jobs I've been working recently.

      Really? Unless you're independently wealthy and don't need the money (or are physically disabled), I don't see how you could be happier working 120 hours/week at $2.50/hour doing programming versus 40 hours/week at $7.25/hour minimum wage doing general labor. And I can't imagine that you're putting forth your best effort while working 17 hours days 7 days a week.

    74. Re:Except they didn't. by parkinglot777 · · Score: 1

      Did they offer the Americans an equivalent salary?

      Yes, they are supposed to get equivalent American salary. However, there is a loophole or a way to avoid this and it is a fraud. Sadly, it requires due diligent to catch this fraud. It is a perfect fit to how Disney is doing -- hiring a contract IT company to take over the department. How the fraud is doing? Here it is...

      In this case, let's call Disney company X and an IT company company Y. Company X has a contract with company Y to pay a certain amount of money for work from company Y. The money company X is paying is, let's say, $75k a year per employee as a contract to company Y. Then company Y hires some new or fresh graduates to fill in those positions. Company Y pays these new graduates for $40k a year. They then trained them on specific areas that company X either is looking or may ask for. Then company Y fabricates these graduates' resumes with experiences related to the training (which teaches them nothing). Company Y also trains graduates to memorize and study every bit of their resume if there is any interview. Now, these graduates are supposed to be ready for a much higher paying job. If company X ask for an interview, then these graduates should do well as if they have been working in the area. In theory, they would know what to answer. In practice, they have done nothing. If the person is hired/accepted by company X, the company is getting paid $75k per person, and each employee is getting $40k.

      See the loop hole there? The company X does not know (or need to know) about what they are paying for. Those higher management in company X would be so proud that they have saved a lot of money to the company and would be getting big bonuses. In the mean time, the company Y is knowingly fraudulent on persons' qualifications. Also, company Y would file H1B for these graduates as entry level, and the salary they are getting is far lower than the work they are doing. If any of these graduates couldn't improve or catch up to the level of work, they would replace them with others they hired.

      Why would these newly graduates allow this to happen? Well, they get a benefit of being able to work; besides, company X usually promises them to get them work permit and eventually a green card later on. It is a win-win situation for them. Who is losing? You should know that by now...

    75. Re:Except they didn't. by Jawnn · · Score: 1
      Solution to the problem? It's not that hard.
      Schedule an end to the H1-B program. Send the remaining time investing in education and training of American workers so that they can do the job. Watch the "free market" dictate the wages to be paid to this pool of workers.

      Yes, it is really just that simple. When you can't dip into a pool of labor that is willing to work for pennies, and instead have to actually compete in attracting talent, the free market magic works. No, spare me the "global economy" bullshit.

    76. Re: Except they didn't. by unixisc · · Score: 1

      Except that for them, it then translates into finding a job vs not finding one. Interestingly enough, companies like TCS, Infosys, Wipro, et al don't seem to have as many projects in India as they do outside.

    77. Re:Except they didn't. by edtice1559 · · Score: 1

      You can say that the applicant must be able to legally work in the US. Some employers love H1-Bs. Others will not even interview a candidate who doesn't already have a green card. The knife cuts both ways.

    78. Re:Except they didn't. by EndlessNameless · · Score: 1

      They didn't terminate them "based solely on their national origin and race"

      But what other reason could there be...

      They terminated them based on the fact they can pay Indian workers a fraction of the salary.

      ...when this is clearly not the case, as the H1B program is supposed to let American companies hire foreign tech workers only when there are no domestic workers available.

      It's almost like this a play to bring attention to a serious jobs issue, with the added bonus of potentially winning a judgment in court if things shake out well.

      --

      ---
      According to the latest ruleset, this post should be modded as Vorpal Flamebait +5.
    79. Re:Except they didn't. by Abu+of+unruley+kids · · Score: 1

      I would be gaining more work experience. Always a plus. There is no need to work like that. If you work 17 hours a day, 7 days a week. You or your project manager is doing something unproductive. Maybe reassess your design?. I've worked on many projects that where due in say 3 months, when in reality they were 9+ months projects. Even then I didn't need to work more than 12 hours, usually(rarely; In those instances the client wanted something changed or added, asap). It's about proper time management and knowing your teams' strengths and limitations. Occasionally some of those extra hours put in, was helping out other team member(s). Again, know your team. Not just at work, outside of work as well.

      When I started, a college degree was not a requirement. You jumped to a new contract when yours was finished, via your network of associates. They did the same. Of course that all changed circa 2000 when HRs started to do the hiring process. My network has run thin. Lack of a degree makes it hard these days. So yes, I would take 2.50/hr. Less money doesn't always equate to lesser quality. It's just a rare gem to find, and that gem is me! I'm old school, were code auditing was the norm. Not like most kids these days. Where they run test suites and pray it passes. Don't get me wrong. Test suites are vital, but limited with out a proper audit.

      It's about loving what you do best.

      I'm not independently wealthy. I was just smart enough to save and not take on bank notes or mortgages. So, I only need a basic income to make due. That's with a family.

    80. Re:Except they didn't. by wallsg · · Score: 1

      The real solution is to make H1B job replacement treated the way that dual-use or military export-controlled technology is treated. When you export the product you are responsible for verifying that the purchaser is who they say they are and that they are qualified to receive the technology. If you don't do this then you as the exporter are guilty.

      If a company like Disney outsources their IT department then Disney should be legally responsible if they don't verify that the outsourcing firm is not replacing US residents with H1B employees, which would be illegal if Disney did it directly.

      Expect GREAT resistance to any suggestion like this by the entire outsourcing industry and the companies they serve.

    81. Re:Except they didn't. by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      We have quite a few positions that must be filled by "US persons" under ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations). That doesn't mean US citizens only, but it doesn't look like an H-1B qualifies as a "US person". It's a legitimate business consideration because we can sell more stuff if we conform.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    82. Re:Except they didn't. by torkus · · Score: 1

      Technically, H1-B must be paid a competitive wage and can only be brought in when there is no existing american worker to fill a position. The (claimed) expectation was that H1-B workers would be paid MORE than average (they're relocating after all) during the time they're permitted here to fill the needed roles while americans continued to train more tech workers.

      Reality, of course, played out very differently. We didn't import highly trained and specalised people from the EU. We brought in barely competent generic workerbees from india.

      --
      You can get rich if you own a politician, but you have to be rich to buy one in the first place.
    83. Re: Except they didn't. by ghoul · · Score: 1

      Good for you. Your situation is not the typical situation.
      Classmate of mine is a CEO of a startup with a valuation of 10 Billion. I dont ask my manager to match my salary to match his.
      For the skills and experience we are hiring for there is a competitive market and the salary range I specified is the market range.

      --
      **Life is too short to be serious**
    84. Re:Except they didn't. by ghoul · · Score: 1

      Its not a rare language. After Hindi, English,Bengali its the 4th most spoken language in India. Also the largest number of low cost offshore programmers are either Telugu speaking or Kannada speaking. Of course everyone speaks English as all technical education is in English in India. Point is there are ways to set up requirements for what you want. Well you don't like the language requirement. How about a requirement having experience working with teams in different time zones. Only employees and clients of offshoring companies would have the experience of a daily 9 PM phone call. You couldn't say it is extraneous to the job , in fact its critical for a successful off-shored team. You can ask for many other things. At the end of the day its a capitalist society and in a capitalist society govt. cannot tell business who to employ or who to give their business to. You want central planning with employment for all there is this nice tropical island off the coast of Florida with free medical care. I heard there are direct flights now.

      --
      **Life is too short to be serious**
    85. Re:Except they didn't. by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      People who *have* kids are mentally ill. If they aren't to start with, they'll pretty soon end up that way.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  2. Indian managers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Once you get a couple of Indian folks into management positions they just tend to recruit other Indian people and gradually remove whites.

    1. Re:Indian managers by RoscoeChicken · · Score: 1

      Sounds like someone worked at Logitech in Vancouver, WA.

    2. Re:Indian managers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Or microsoft, or some parts of Cisco, or many other tech companies. It's a trend, good or bad, but worth recognizing.

    3. Re:Indian managers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Affirmative action by a minority. How come noone ever calls out the Blacks and NFL,NBA or Wall Street and Jews but if its a real Indian its discrimination not affirmative action. Indians were shut out of the country till 1965 by hook and crook and discriminatory immigration laws. Indians will use hook and crook to balance the playing field . Deal with it.

      University of Texas fires Mac Brown, white guy with mostly white staff and hires Charlie Strong, black guy, who proceeds to replace every white guy on the coaching or trainer staff with... you guessed it, a black guy.

      Charlie has 3 loosing season including loosing to a team that UT had not lost to in 70 years. Charlie gets fired. His replacement is a white guy, wonder how long until the entire training and coaching staff is all white again.

    4. Re:Indian managers by msauve · · Score: 1

      I'm not so sure about that. The Crows really don't like the Sioux.

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    5. Re:Indian managers by OzPeter · · Score: 1

      Once you get a couple of Indian folks into management positions they just tend to recruit other Indian people and gradually remove whites.

      This is a bit OT for TFA but Indians have been taking over the US hotel business for at least the last 20-30 years. From a random article from 2012

      Nearly half of the motels in the U.S. are owned by Indian Americans.

      Why Indian Americans Dominate the U.S. Motel Industry

      --
      I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
    6. Re:Indian managers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Exactly. As whites become less racist, other races become even more racist and celebrate their bigotry.

    7. Re:Indian managers by ghoul · · Score: 1

      Oh Indians have always been racist. There have always been 3 races in India- Aryan, Dravidian and Mongoloid. But the races have learnt how to live with each other. So Indians will discriminate against other Indians based on skin color or flatness of nose but they do not have the hatred of White supremacists who want to have a one race nation. They do not want to wipe other races out. Indians know a one race nation is not possible. So they are well equipped to deal with a multiracial culture as they come from one themselves. In fact they may be better equipped to live in USA than the original settlers who did not come from multi-racial nations.

      --
      **Life is too short to be serious**
    8. Re:Indian managers by ninthbit · · Score: 1

      They may own all the motels, but they staff them with non-indians. I've NEVER seen an Indian housekeeper. Most of the front desk staff are either women or effeminate men, both typically non-indian.

      The manager may be Indian, but that's probably nepotism more than racism, and it's not illegal in most cases. Even if it was, they were probably qualified since the whole family was raised in the industry, so its still not a pure EEO issue.

    9. Re:Indian managers by It's+the+tripnaut! · · Score: 1

      Once you get a couple of Indian folks into management positions they just tend to recruit other Indian people and gradually remove whites.

      The same is true for major cities in Southeast Asia (Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Singapore, Bangkok), both in the outsourcing industry and consulting.

  3. Re:I live in Orlando by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Take that "needs " shit back to Reddit.

    Thank you for saying what needs to be said.

    Also, there is no such thing as someone being "bias". The word is "biased" (something you are) rather than "bias" (something you have).

    But the one good thing about Reddit & 4chan neologisms and bad usage is that it makes it easier to know whom to ignore.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  4. H1B is deeply flawed by LeftCoastThinker · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The flaw here is the H1B program needs to be completely eliminated for consulting/services companies (among other things, but this is the topic du jour). If you are a consulting/services company, you should be required to use only US employees in the US. The consulting company outsourcing is a circumvention technique for companies like Disney, who could never have gotten away with replacing all their IT people with H1B employees, but by "outsourcing" to a consulting company, they can legally lay off all of their employees and then benefit from the lower cost from the consulting company hiring a bunch of H1B slave labor. Same net effect, same savings to Disney, but totally legal currently.

    --
    If you disagree, please post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like
    1. Re:H1B is deeply flawed by fluffernutter · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I agree. A consulting company is in the business of speculating where resources will be needed. Therefore it is illogical that they could ever hire under H1B since the point of H1B is to be a last resort for hiring once all avenues are exhausted. It is not supposed to be used to fill positions that are still being speculated upon.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    2. Re:H1B is deeply flawed by ghoul · · Score: 2

      The H1B program was created as part of the WTO and US signing on. When India agreed to let US sell Coca Cola in India , US agreed to let India sell Software Services in the US . Now selling services needs people to be onsite hence the H1B. If you want to get rid of H1Bs leave the WTO and watch Caterpillar and Boeing factories close.

      --
      **Life is too short to be serious**
    3. Re:H1B is deeply flawed by roman_mir · · Score: 1

      If you are a consulting/services company, you should be required to use only US employees in the US

      - based on what? Those are the jobs of the employer, not of anybody else.

    4. Re:H1B is deeply flawed by SvnLyrBrto · · Score: 2

      Alternately, I'd prefer to see H1B visa's eliminated entirely across the board, in favor of a fast-track program to admit skilled* foreign workers into the country first with permanent resident (green card) status, with the ultimate goal of promoting them to full citizenship. Skilled* STEM workers are exactly the people that we should be seeking out and encouraging to immigrate and become full members of society. H1Bs, or any other visa tied to a specific employer, are appallingly abusive; both of society in general, and the imported workers as well.

      * And I do mean legitimately and provably skilled. Not people who just know all the keywords with which to pad their resumes, and fake certifications and degrees from Uncle Rozkoe's Auto Shop and IT University.

      --
      Imagine all the people...
    5. Re:H1B is deeply flawed by Outta_the_way_peck! · · Score: 1

      The H1B program was created as part of the WTO and US signing on. When India agreed to let US sell Coca Cola in India , US agreed to let India sell Software Services in the US . Now selling services needs people to be onsite hence the H1B. If you want to get rid of H1Bs leave the WTO and watch Caterpillar and Boeing factories close.

      What does Coca Cola have to do with Caterpillar and Boeing?

  5. The real missed point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    H1-B visas are for positions they couldn't fill without bringing foreign talent. Laying people off to fill the positions with H1-B is illegal.

    1. Re:The real missed point by GrumpySteen · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yes, but laying people off to fill their positions with an outside contractor is legal, even if the contractor primarily hires H1-B visa workers for their contracts. It's a loophole that has been abused too many times to count and there's absolutely no sign that it will ever be closed.

    2. Re:The real missed point by myid · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It's a loophole that has been abused too many times to count and there's absolutely no sign that it will ever be closed.

      This NDTV article states,

      President-elect Donald Trump has said he would not allow Americans to be replaced by foreign workers, in an apparent reference to cases like that of Disney World and other American companies wherein people hired on H-1B visas, including Indians, displaced US workers.

      "We will fight to protect every last American life," Mr Trump told thousands of his supporters in Iowa on Thursday as he referred to the cases of Disney world and other US companies.

      We'll see how hard he pushes Congress on this matter.

    3. Re:The real missed point by Darinbob · · Score: 2

      But every company does this. No CEO has gone to jail for this yet.

    4. Re:The real missed point by houghi · · Score: 1

      Well, it would hurt the companies and their CxO to get bigger bonuses, so why should they close these loopholes. That would be un-American. Why do you hate America?

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    5. Re:The real missed point by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Trump says a lot of shit. Actions speak louder than words, and in the past he has made use of undocumented workers. In fact, the tower where his administration is currently based was built by 200 illegal Polish labourers.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    6. Re:The real missed point by Gojira+Shipi-Taro · · Score: 1

      Perhaps it's time for a few to get shot over it.

      --
      "Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fucked."; ~ Donald J. Trump
    7. Re:The real missed point by Merk42 · · Score: 1

      We'll see how hard he pushes Congress on this matter.

      and if it doesn't happen, it'll somehow be Obama's fault.

    8. Re:The real missed point by Fire_Wraith · · Score: 1

      That, and Trump himself has a preference for hiring foreign workers (using H-2B visas) for his country club in Florida, despite the availability of local American workers. Maybe he'll close the loopholes - but I'm not holding my breath.

    9. Re:The real missed point by RatherBeAnonymous · · Score: 1

      I agree that what Disney did was probably legal, in the strictest interpretation of the term "legal". But, it is illegal to hire an H1-B visa holder for a position that can be filled by a qualified American, and it is is illegal to displace an American worker with an h1-B visa holder. I presume that "American" includes permanent residents as well as US citizens. If anyone broke the law, it it would have been the contracting companies, HCL and Cognizant

    10. Re:The real missed point by Enigma2175 · · Score: 1

      That, and Trump himself has a preference for hiring foreign workers (using H-2B visas) for his country club in Florida, despite the availability of local American workers. Maybe he'll close the loopholes - but I'm not holding my breath.

      He ALSO has a preference for marrying H-1B visa holders. His wife was an illegal immigrant (at least working in the US illegally), then got legal using an H-1B visa. Apparently, she was granted an H-1B visa because she is "a model of extraordinary ability". If his own wife came to the US on an H-1B, do you really think Trump will close the loopholes? I'm not holding my breath either, he has shown by his cabinet picks that he intends this to be a government of big business, by big business, for big business.

      --

      Enigma

    11. Re:The real missed point by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      -1 Troll for posting factual information relevant to the discussion. Trump mods are so confident in their guy they have to abuse the system on his behalf.

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    12. Re: The real missed point by OhPlz · · Score: 1

      If he doesn't get confirmed, the US is over.

    13. Re:The real missed point by superwiz · · Score: 1

      Federal government itself does this all the time. It cannot hire non-citizens or non-residents for permanent roles, but they bring in "on-site contractors" who are effectively H1B visa holders working for a shell contractor company. They end paying programmers roughly as much as secretaries. This is not a rumor I overheard. I've seen it done.

      --
      Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
    14. Re:The real missed point by superwiz · · Score: 1

      No, a subcontractor he hired used 200 illegal Polish workers at the time when there were no way to electronically check that all the individuals on your site have the right to work in the country. Today you can check in an instant. Back in the 80's (when this was happening) you had to pretty much trust your subcontractors or you'd be doing all their HR work for them.

      --
      Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
    15. Re:The real missed point by superwiz · · Score: 1

      The FEDERAL GOVERNMENT does this. On US soil. In DC, in fact.

      --
      Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
    16. Re:The real missed point by omnichad · · Score: 1

      His opinion seems more like "if the loophole still exists, you have to take it to stay competitive." And you'll find the same kind of sociopathic tendencies in any CEO-type as well. Closing the loophole would still be equitable, so it wouldn't necessarily be a net loss for him with all economic factors considered. That doesn't mean he understands that.

    17. Re:The real missed point by omnichad · · Score: 1

      And of course if they didn't keep the people on long enough to train the replacements, they would actually be available qualified candidates for the contractor. I somehow think this is part of the reason they are kept on to train the replacements.

    18. Re:The real missed point by unixisc · · Score: 1

      Trump says a lot of shit. Actions speak louder than words, and in the past he has made use of undocumented workers. In fact, the tower where his administration is currently based was built by 200 illegal Polish labourers.

      Well, he started off w/ Ford and Carrier, therefore so far, his actions have spoken - and he's not yet even president!

      Unlike what the polls suggested, not only did he win, but he even had congressional coattails. So if he wants to crack down on H1Bs, he can get it lit up in Congress. Paul Ryan's clout is a tad reduced, plus I'm not sure whether he has a preference for H1Bs the way Trump did.

      I think the best solution to the H1B issue is to legislate a minimum wage of $100k/yr, as Ted Cruz had proposed when he was still running. Once you have that, you'll automatically eliminate the sole advantage a company has to import unskilled labor: it will be used for the things that H1B was originally designed for. Companies will automatically stop lobbying Congress to increase the H1B ceiling.

      As for Trump himself, he explained the immigration he hired in the past. The H2B visas are something he hires for seasonal work: it is tough to hire people who are willing to be employed for just 3-6 months, given that such blips look bad on a resume.

    19. Re:The real missed point by superwiz · · Score: 1

      But he was paying the subcontractor... not the workers. It's pretty common for agents in tech to take over 50% of their employees pay. Their pay stubs come from the subcontractor -- not from the builder. He would pay a company to (let's say for the sake of example) do X floors of welding and who they hire to do it and how they pay them is their business. He just pays their bill as long as the work is done. And yes, they can be a polish-owned company which hires people in their neighborhood. How would he know without micromanaging their business (ie, doing the HR work of the subcontractors). In other news, so many Chines restaurant cooking staff all speak Chinese... because that's who the owners hired. Oh, and yes, there are Polish neighborhoods in Queens and Brooklyn. So it's not improbable that a contractor would hire in such a neighborhood. Nor would it raise a red flag.

      --
      Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
    20. Re:The real missed point by myid · · Score: 1

      I think the best solution to the H1B issue is to legislate a minimum wage of $100k/yr, as Ted Cruz had proposed when he was still running.

      I agree that Congress should make it expensive to hire H-1Bs. But instead of giving higher pay to non-US citizens, let's have a federal tax of $50,000 per year per H-1B.

      The money might go into a special fund that gives job training to US citizens, in skills that are in short supply. For example, Tim Cook said Apple makes its products in China because

      The U.S., over time, began to stop having as many vocational kind of skills. I mean, you can take every tool and die maker in the United States and probably put them in a room that we’re currently sitting in. In China, you would have to have multiple football fields.

      So let's use a $50,000 per year per H-1B tax to train more American tool and die makers, making the US a more attractive country in which to manufacture.

    21. Re: The real missed point by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      No, that is illegal. In fact, that is exactly why the other half of this lawsuit is about that.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  6. Lawyers more creative than engineers by JoeyRox · · Score: 1, Insightful

    The premise for the suit is quite creative. And absurd. Its only chance is finding a sympathetic (read: nationalistic) jury. I guess it's worth a shot considering all the protectionist rhetoric that was thrown around during this election cycle.

    1. Re:Lawyers more creative than engineers by jeff4747 · · Score: 1

      They don't need a jury.

      How do you think a ruling that says "It's OK for Disney to fire all the Americans" will go over in public opinion? Might have a wee bit of an effect on their pocketbook.

    2. Re:Lawyers more creative than engineers by JoeyRox · · Score: 2

      It hasn't seemed to effect Walmart's business too negatively even though shoppers know that nearly everything sold in the store is made in China.

    3. Re:Lawyers more creative than engineers by JoeyRox · · Score: 1

      err, typo: "affected Walmart's business..."

    4. Re:Lawyers more creative than engineers by Kjella · · Score: 1

      The premise for the suit is quite creative. And absurd. Its only chance is finding a sympathetic (read: nationalistic) jury. I guess it's worth a shot considering all the protectionist rhetoric that was thrown around during this election cycle.

      I think it's mostly a ploy by the lawyers to get Disney to trip up by explaining that it's not racism just price dumping.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    5. Re:Lawyers more creative than engineers by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

      The premise for the suit is quite creative. And absurd. Its only chance is finding a sympathetic (read: nationalistic) jury. I guess it's worth a shot considering all the protectionist rhetoric that was thrown around during this election cycle.

      It'll be the Chewbaca defence vs DEY TUK UR JOBS

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    6. Re:Lawyers more creative than engineers by D00MSlayer · · Score: 1

      Why would a Wookiee, an 8-foot-tall Wookiee, want to live on Endor, with a bunch of 2-foot-tall Ewoks? That does not make sense!

  7. It's not flawed in the slightest by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    it's doing exactly what it's suppose to do: drive down American wages. That's like saying an Iron Maiden is a deeply flawed torture device because, gosh, somebody could get hurt.

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    1. Re:It's not flawed in the slightest by Narcocide · · Score: 1

      This is actually false though. It may be what its being used for, but its not what the H1B program is officially supposed to be for. Officially, its supposed to only be used to fill jobs when no US citizen can be found qualified, period.

    2. Re:It's not flawed in the slightest by LeftCoastThinker · · Score: 1

      That may be how the current administration is letting it be abused, but the actual purpose of H1B/law is to allow companies to tap foreign talent if they CANT find it in the states. It has been abused, as in this case, to drive down wages, but if H1B actually starts getting enforced, and if it gets modified with some real teeth (fines in the order of 1% of the companies net profits from prior fiscal year per violation, or better yet, felony charges for perjury for lying on an H1B form, require CEOs to sign on all H1B forms), this shit will stop in a heart beat.

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      If you disagree, please post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like
    3. Re:It's not flawed in the slightest by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 1

      sigh.

      you are right, of course. the real agenda WAS by the rich elites to depress wages and crush the middle class just enough so that they don't totally disappear, but that they don't act as 'uppity' as they used to. put them back in their 'place'. hey, that IS their (the boss) mentality, thru and thru, and they are bold as hell now.

      you can look at what is written and say the law was about that; but as you indicate, dig deeper and you see the real unwritten intention and since the ones would could punish the companies that go against the letter of this law - they are letting them get away with it, fully - it shows that it was never intended to be a literal law, anyway. it was a 'hint hint, nudge nudge' law. implied understanding of what the real purpose was.

      since the regular person no longer has any meaningful say in how things are run, we sit back and are dealt one powerful blow after another, against us. the courts don't defend or care about us, the enforcers don't care and the rule-makers are in the pockets of those that want to remain rich - even get richer than they would ever need to be.

      we hear talk of a need for a revolution. and we truly need it. but we won't get it. we are stripped of our power in all real ways. they know it and many of us know it, too.

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
  8. Re:I live in Orlando by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Now you're unemployable for life.

    Uh, no. I was unemployed for two years (2009-10), underemployed for six months (working 20 hours per month), and filed for chapter seven bankruptcy in 2011. For two years I was told by hiring managers that I was overqualified for minimum wage work and told by recruiters that I was unemployable. The day after my bankruptcy got finalized I got full-time work again because the economy turned around and employers needed to fill positions.

  9. Re: I live in Orlando by ranton · · Score: 1

    Which is why you don't stick around at a company which is too far behind the times. Your company isn't responsible for your future employability. You are. Once enough exit interviews show them why their best people are leaving they will either change or keep losing all but their worst employees (probably forcing them to bring in contractors).

    --
    -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
  10. I've seen jobs posted by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    specifically for an H1-B. And it'll be child's play to prove that it was all Indians hired. I guess motive might be a factor though. The motive is paying lower wages. But I've also heard tell of the guys that run the H1-B factories here in the states that they don't like Americans because they're so lazy. So again, not so far fetched.

    BTW, where the hell is Trump in all this? He finished the Carrier deal (for better or worse). I want him on this one. He's got a pretty clear cut case of visa abuse here. Time to put up or shut up.

    --
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    1. Re:I've seen jobs posted by JoeyRox · · Score: 1

      The motive is not just a factor - it's what they've hinged their entire case on. To claim Disney's motivation was discrimination is what's creative about the case. And absurd.

    2. Re:I've seen jobs posted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      First, Trump is a racist. Many of his cabinet people are racists, a large portion of his voter base are racists, a large portion of Americans are racists, even unintentionally so(some are really nice about it too). These are facts.

      He didn't help Carrier at all actually, but he did ensure that the people in the state paid significantly more to the company than the jobs were worth. They literally could have just given the money directly to the former workers and saved money while giving a pay bump to the workers while on unemployment. Do the math. The Carrier deal will only increase taxes. Almost all of the jobs "saved" were scheduled to be kept there anyways.

      All that said, this is a perfect example of a place where Trump could actually help. He says he wants to drain the swamp? He says he wants to help workers? Here's a perfect example where his protectionism and promises to the middle class would overlap. I'm curious to see if he is willing to keep a single campaign promise. So far his record has been to do the opposite of what he said he was going to do.

    3. Re:I've seen jobs posted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      First, Trump is a racist. Many of his cabinet people are racists, a large portion of his voter base are racists, a large portion of Americans are racists, even unintentionally so(some are really nice about it too). These are facts.

      Fact: Humanity is wired to be tribal and you don't understand the difference between racism and tribalism. The 95% of blacks who voted for Obama didn't do it because they think whites are inferior they did it because Obama looks like them.

      He didn't help Carrier at all actually, but he did ensure that the people in the state paid significantly more to the company than the jobs were worth. They literally could have just given the money directly to the former workers and saved money while giving a pay bump to the workers while on unemployment. Do the math. The Carrier deal will only increase taxes. Almost all of the jobs "saved" were scheduled to be kept there anyways.

      Obviously can't be bothered to grep basic "facts". A little more than half Jobs at the Carrier plant actually going to Mexico are now staying due to Trump/Pence deal. The PR numbers were bullshit because they included work that was not moving. Once you discount the bullshit you are still left with ~60% of the people who were losing their jobs at Carrier no longer losing their jobs.

  11. Why are hard workers being replaced? by plopez · · Score: 3, Informative

    I have seen US workers work weekends, out of hours and holidays for my entire career. Often covering for contractors and overseas Asian teams who never seem to be available outside of their regular hours. Also they seem to be impossible to contact during their month long holidays no mater the crisis the customers are having.
    They just lack the the Protestant work ethic.

    And the US workers who "go the extra mile" get laid off anyway. I can only attribute it to race and national origin discrimination.

    --
    putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
    1. Re:Why are hard workers being replaced? by JoeyRox · · Score: 1

      For the same reason people shop at Walmart - to save money.

    2. Re:Why are hard workers being replaced? by bosef1 · · Score: 1

      This is probably off-topic, but that is one of the things that annoys me the most about working with foreign countries: the random holidays where everyone takes off. We been working with a German company (not on contract, but for some warranty work), and even their US sales rep couldn't get anyone on the phone in October. Maybe it's American pluralism, that not everyone has the same holidays, or maybe it's poor contracts that don't mandate at least 3 nines of level-2 availability for support (or in our case, no contract), but it sucks dealing with overseas people. I'm not saying people shouldn't have holidays, but how do you run a business or country that closes down for a month?

    3. Re:Why are hard workers being replaced? by plopez · · Score: 1

      If you have projects scattered over several countries and regions at any point in time you have a high probability of one or more teams out on a religious, seasonal, traditional, or other such holiday. Throw in cultural, time zone, and language barriers in addition to slippage due to lack of face to face communications and distributed projects make no sense.

      --
      putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
    4. Re:Why are hard workers being replaced? by godrik · · Score: 1

      I'm not saying people shouldn't have holidays, but how do you run a business or country that closes down for a month?

      I don't understand, lots of businesses work like that. In the US, almost no business happen between thanksgiving and new year.
      Universities are essentially closed from Dec 20 to Jan 7.
      If you are a camping equipment company, I bet your sales department much between September and January.
      My parents contract salesman and representative for a gardening furniture/cooking company. Their business is February to July. The rest of the year is just there to prepare the next season.

      It actually makes sense to have entire department off (probably besides one guy) for an entire month. You don't have to worry about scheduling time off for the employees to make sure you have 80% capacity at all time. You can tell your business associates "In July, no one is there." And since everyone is gone at the same time, you are pretty sure that the department will run at about 100% the rest of the time.

      Now I am not saying it is possible for every single company and every single department. But overall, there are advantages.

    5. Re:Why are hard workers being replaced? by dbIII · · Score: 1

      They just lack the the Protestant work ethic

      The Protestant work ethic is based on the assumption that the employer will act like a Christian instead of an exploitative Satanist. Thus it doesn't really apply when employing guest workers at less than a living wage. The employer has already broken their side so expecting extra consideration from the employees is unlikely to happen.

    6. Re:Why are hard workers being replaced? by mmell · · Score: 2
      Um . . . "Protestant work ethic" . . . weren't the Protestants that landed at Fraggle Rock exiled for not being Catholics? Just a bunch of religious whack-o's not unlike practicioners of a certain religious terror group we've heard a lot about lately, eh?

      Now, the WASPS are on top. It's okay to not be one of them - as long as you're fully aware that you are undermenschen and accept it. Since somewhere along the line some damned fool made slavery illegal in this country, we need to get our lower class from somewhere now, don't we?

      Don't believe it? Just ask the fine folks working for a major IT provider recently arrived in Dubuque Iowa how many of them think it's best to sleep under their desks rather than risk not living in the US for much longer. $24.04/hour for UNIX System Administrators? Makes perfect sense to me - if the alternative is a one-way ticket home.

    7. Re:Why are hard workers being replaced? by omnichad · · Score: 1

      weren't the Protestants that landed at Fraggle Rock exiled for not being Catholics?

      They left the Church of England, not the Catholic church. They came to dance their cares away.

    8. Re: Why are hard workers being replaced? by mmell · · Score: 1

      Yeah . . . somebody shoulda wanted the natives. Nature would've solved the whole problem.

  12. LCA Wage Rate Fuckery by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    > H1-B holders need to be paid market salary.

    Its a lot more tricky than that.

    Determining prevailing wage is based on the LCA (labor conditions application) which basically defines the job. But the employer can file for an H1B for a job multiple times using a different LCA each time. So they can list different "prevailing wage" rates for the same job. Then, once any one of those H1B applications is approved by the government, they switch out the LCA for any of those that were filed, even the ones that were not approved. So basically its a bait-and-switch the labor department, promising to pay high wages and then paying the lowest wages they ever filed for. And the kicker is its all legal.

  13. Sucks but nothing will change. by ErichTheRed · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I do feel bad for these workers. The H-1B loopholes that allow bodyshops like Tata to bring in cheaper, ,more compliant workers need be changed. I doubt anything will happen though -- Trump certainly isn't going to do anything that will upset his friends in business. He's basically signaled to every executive out there that concessions are available for the right price and he's willing to cut deals with the Carrier incident.

    I don't have a problem with the H-1B program itself - but the fact that it's used to replace older, more senior workers doing routine IT work that doesn't require exceptional skills is the problem. I'm doing systems integration work, and the development teams I'm working with are all slowly being replaced with offshore Indian guys and body shop employees. I'm good for now because someone has to make heads or tails of the messes they want to get working, but I feel that unless something is done there will be no work for experienced people, and no pipeline of newbies to fill entry level positions. If people see they can't get anywhere in IT because there's no entry level work anymore, they're going to study something else.

    I see a post or two saying the people filing these lawsuits have no talent...somehow I doubt this. IT is famous for throwing out workers who are 40+ and who demand above a certain salary for their experience. So far, the only hope I've seen in this situation is that there are constantly companies in this loop of offshoring, then bringing IT back in house when it starts going pear-shaped, then repeating. Not all these companies are on the same schedule. What I'll bet happened is that there was a bunch of staff who became very senior developers or sysadmins of a key system, and spent their time working to maintain their small little pigeon-hole of knowledge...this happens a lot in big companies. CIO comes in, gets sold on the idea of offshoring, and just goes through the department salary spreadsheet, killing off the top x% of the list. Offshore body shop gets the contract, and has to reduce costs, so they bring in the H-1Bs to learn the job, then teach it to the 1000s of people they have in India. Believe me, I've seen it multiple times, including the "this sucks, let's reshore everything" part.

    1. Re:Sucks but nothing will change. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I see a post or two saying the people filing these lawsuits have no talent...somehow I doubt this. IT is famous for throwing out workers who are 40+ and who demand above a certain salary for their experience. So far, the only hope I've seen in this situation is that there are constantly companies in this loop of offshoring, then bringing IT back in house when it starts going pear-shaped, then repeating. Not all these companies are on the same schedule. What I'll bet happened is that there was a bunch of staff who became very senior developers or sysadmins of a key system, and spent their time working to maintain their small little pigeon-hole of knowledge...this happens a lot in big companies. CIO comes in, gets sold on the idea of offshoring, and just goes through the department salary spreadsheet, killing off the top x% of the list. Offshore body shop gets the contract, and has to reduce costs, so they bring in the H-1Bs to learn the job, then teach it to the 1000s of people they have in India. Believe me, I've seen it multiple times, including the "this sucks, let's reshore everything" part.

      There are many U.S. companies that are looking to replace "40+" IT workers with cheaper labor. Whether that is H1B Visa people, or students right out of college, they are looking for 3 (new) to 1 (old) replacement salary wise. The Ageism in U.S. IT is rampant. The problem comes when all of those low salaries can't afford to buy your products. You are cutting our throats, and your own Corporate throat as well.

    2. Re:Sucks but nothing will change. by ghoul · · Score: 1

      The thing is why is a 40 year old doing work that can be done by a 20 year old. That guy is no better than the one trying to raise a family on a McD job. With 20 years of experience you should be doing work that a 20 yr old cant do.

      --
      **Life is too short to be serious**
    3. Re:Sucks but nothing will change. by Bucc5062 · · Score: 1

      What the hell, that does not even make sense. I've read your other posts and you really come across as a management cheering squad or one of the rugged libertarians that seem to exist outside of reality.

      First, that 20 something that is replacing the 40 something is not just as competent, he's quite less competent, but management does not care. They have one objective and that is to lower costs in labor. Delaying projects, lower quality does not matter before labor costs. Even worse, that 20 something will, within two years blow off the company that trained him for another company that pays more than the crappy 3% he normally gets. Now the company is out the cost of training him, has to pay to train another, and still causes project delays.

      That 40 something, with a multi year experience base in the company's business may actually be more efficient and be able to help save company costs in other ways. He or she may also be at a point in life where they want to stay long term, accept smaller raises for the ability to keep set roots. Smart managers and companies are ones that allow the chaff to move on at the beginning levels, help those that want to stay stay, and retain the senior people for both mentoring roles as well as giving them problems to solve in cost cutting that do start with "Who do we fire next?"

      Get a heart, then a brain.

      --
      Life is a great ride, the vehicle doesn't matter
    4. Re:Sucks but nothing will change. by ghoul · · Score: 1

      Life is constant learning. Nowhere more so in Software. Of course the challenge is that the Software field is very fad driven and moves in cycles instead of in a straight line. Mainframe (centralized CPU) ->PC (decentralized)->Web (Centralized) -> Apps (decentralized). A fresh kid coming out of college knows the latest fad so the old fogies have to also know the latest fad as well as provide other value ad to justify their much higher salaries.

      --
      **Life is too short to be serious**
    5. Re:Sucks but nothing will change. by Bucc5062 · · Score: 1

      And many do. Certainly I've kept up. Just recently a job was presented that required an ability to work with both COBOL/mainframe technologies and .net C/S technologies. I seriously doubt a 20 something or even a 30 something could cope or would want to (sadly).

      The dollar value is not jsut in what language one writes, but on the ability to think, problem solve, organize, and that is what experience brings to the table. The ability to learn a language is nothing compared to the ability to think creatively yet stay within the parameters of a project. Sadly, Hiring Managers and companies feel the former is more important and that will cost them more in the end.

      --
      Life is a great ride, the vehicle doesn't matter
  14. what to do by Ritz_Just_Ritz · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I have worked at a few Fortune X (single and low double digit) companies. They have all been addicted to hiring folks from the usual offshore suspects who pay substandard wages and import (mostly) Indian and Eastern European labor for jobs that could clearly be offered to kids fresh out of college with engineering or comp sci degrees in Europe and the US. I honestly can't fathom why. For all the money "saved" there's the SIGNIFICANT wasted productivity and the "meh" value to the business of the average "resource" supplied. Calls take a lot longer, code quality tends to be sucky to average, emails are hard to parse, and you wind up with a "team" who feels like "as long as there are lots of people on a call, we've got it covered." The fact that efficiency measures suck, employees have no skin in the game to improve things, and everything takes a lot longer seems to be ignored.

    What is it that ensnares the bean counters to prefer this situation over hiring qualified local candidates? I honestly don't get it. Why is it "better" to pay some unqualified person a low wage, tack on a substantial fee paid to the body shop, and then have everyone suffer through the extended delivery times, angst, etc. It can't be cheaper to do it this way, and if it is, it could not possibly be enough of a savings to merit delaying the delivery of what the business needs in a timely manner. Or can it?

    I find the whole thing to be sordid, unsavory, and just demeaning to all concerned. I can't blame the folks who take those H1-B jobs. One trip to Bangalore, Sofia, Kiev, etc and you realize that these are folks that are just trying to make a living. They are acutely aware that many of their co-workers don't like this situation and simply tolerate them. Clearly someone is making some serious $$$ by perpetuating this system. Who? If I was in an industry where the top 20 experts in a particular field were from country X, I could understand. But this is for relatively inexperienced java programmers and sysadmins....clearly not what the H1-B program is designed to help.

    What do YOU think?

    1. Re:what to do by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Simple. Short term profits over long term sustainability. In the short term, expenses go down, profit goes up. By the time the shit has hit the fan, the people making the decisions have cashed out and moved on. They couldn't care less about what happens at that point.

      And it tends to be what a lot of the shareholders want, too, for pretty much the same reason.

    2. Re:what to do by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 1

      what I think: they look at salary levels of individuals AND the fact that non-americans working in america don't know the rules, the laws, the customs here. they are afraid to say NO to the boss. americans who are at least 30 or older know their rights and will say NO to that 5th weekend in a row. indians won't because they are afraid of being sent back. send me back - TO WHERE - 10 miles from where I work? what's the point in that? ;)

      so, its those 2 things. lower base salary and the ability to abuse the employees and they are too ignorant to know better and too afraid to rock the boat.

      its simple, really. and nothing else matters but those 2 things.

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
    3. Re:what to do by ghoul · · Score: 1

      If you have 3 very experienced people maintaining an entire system and one of them falls sick, goes to a different company or goes on leave you are severely affected. However if you have 10 mediocre people doing it at lower salaries than the 3 than 1 falling sick or resigning does not affect you that bad. You probably have that much redundancy built in. Its like how earlier we used to build Supercomputers using highly specialized chips and they used to cost a lot. Now we build them by putting Intel chips in the 1000s. The key is to figure out a system where the work can be scaled and the IT Outsourcing companies have figured out the scaling problem. That is there USP

      --
      **Life is too short to be serious**
    4. Re:what to do by jeff4747 · · Score: 2

      What is it that ensnares the bean counters to prefer this situation over hiring qualified local candidates?

      Bonuses are usually based on quarterly results. The negatives you mention will take a while to hurt quarterly results, while the lower wages instantly boost quarterly results.

      Then when the shit starts hitting the fan, the manager moves to their next employer, citing their impressive quarterly savings as a reason to hire them.

    5. Re:what to do by SvnLyrBrto · · Score: 2

      SIGNIFICANT wasted productivity and the "meh" value to the business of the average "resource" supplied. Calls take a lot longer, code quality tends to be sucky to average, emails are hard to parse, and you wind up with a "team" who feels like "as long as there are lots of people on a call, we've got it covered." The fact that efficiency measures suck, employees have no skin in the game to improve things, and everything takes a lot longer

      So very much this. I've never lost my job to any of those bangalore or calcutta chop shops. But I've been at companies that *have* either laid off, or refused to hire, local talent in favor of those outfits. I've both worked on "teams" with off-shore contractors myself, and observed the effects on other groups. And, I will NEVER willingly follow suit. And if I am ever forced by higher management to hire out work those those shops, that's when it's time to hit the job boards myself. I've never seen outsourced development turn out to be anything but a disaster, and the last resort of a company that's circling the drain anyway. Most usually, it is as the AC said: A intentional "pump and dump" exercise by executives looking to boost the stock price for the next couple of quarters so they can cash out and then let the company crash and burn.

      --
      Imagine all the people...
    6. Re:what to do by drew_kime · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What is it that ensnares the bean counters to prefer this situation over hiring qualified local candidates? I honestly don't get it. Why is it "better" to pay some unqualified person a low wage, tack on a substantial fee paid to the body shop, and then have everyone suffer through the extended delivery times, angst, etc. It can't be cheaper to do it this way, and if it is, it could not possibly be enough of a savings to merit delaying the delivery of what the business needs in a timely manner. Or can it?

      One year when I worked at a bank the CTO published our annual goals, and one of the two goals was to achieve an average development rate less than $30 per hour. Everyone in the room knew what that meant ... or we thought we did. There was no one there making less than $30/hr at the time, so we expected we were all going to be replaced by low-price contractors, or the work would simply be outsourced.

      But our department head was smarter than that. He engaged an offshore team of 20 people. We had 10 onshore. We never sent them any work that mattered, and a significant portion of our project manager's job wen to "keeping them busy" with things that would show up on a status report, but that didn't affect our actual work product.

      The average development rate went down even thought the total spend went up, and we kept delivering what we always had.

      You tell me the metric, I'll tell you the easiest way to game it.

      --
      Nope, no sig
    7. Re:what to do by Kjella · · Score: 2

      Clearly someone is making some serious $$$ by perpetuating this system. Who?

      Mostly executives pushing the cost ahead of them. Hire cheaper staff, costs go down quick and product quality and reputation slower so short term you boost margins, raise the stock price, collect your quarterly bonus and leave as a great CEO. Hire more expensive staff, costs go up quick while product quality and reputation only slowly gets better, magins are down, stock price is down, no bonuses and everybody is unhappy with you. Usually you're shuffled out of office before your investments pay off. Nobody's come up with good incentives to punish those who flush the company's long term future down the drain. It's only the employees that go down with the sinking ship.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    8. Re:what to do by dbIII · · Score: 2

      What is it that ensnares the bean counters to prefer this situation over hiring qualified local candidates?

      The cash comes out of a different bucket so those "productivity" numbers become wonderful, leading to praise and promotion of bean counters.
      It's a misdirection game and not improvement.

    9. Re:what to do by roman_mir · · Score: 1

      property taxes are theft, so are income taxes. Hiring people is not theft.

    10. Re:what to do by johannesg · · Score: 1

      That's because management is universally insane, and will only ever count costs that are actually being measured by their own bosses. Lost productivity is not being measured and therefore not being counted. It's not about productivity, it's about optimizing the pointless metric du joure. ...simple example. My company has seen fit to equip me with a laptop that has a 5400rpm harddisk and a corporate security solution that cannot be disabled, and that insists on laboriously scanning every header file I want to use in a compilation - every. single. time. The boss is happy because he saved the cost of one decent laptop. My productivity is destroyed because I spend well over three hours to compile what should be a ten minute job on a properly configured machine. Does my lost productivity count? Nope...

    11. Re: what to do by ljw1004 · · Score: 1

      > "you tell me the metric, I'll tell you how to game it"

      Metric: increased sales revenue (without changing the pricing structure)

      Is there any way to game that?

    12. Re:what to do by bradley13 · · Score: 1

      I have seen this. Some of it has to do with CIOs wanting to make their mark. At one company that shall remain nameless, the new CIO outsourced all of the IT first-level support. I'm sure he saved money on paper, and got a nice bonus. He then quickly moved on, before the flood of user complaints. I mean, it's kind of hard to fix a loose network cable, when you are thousands of kilometers away. So the next CIO comes in and earns his bonus by improving user support - cancelling the remote support contract and hiring local people again.

      It's not about being sensible, or even saving money. It's about ticking checkboxes and advancing CxO careers.

      --
      Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
    13. Re:what to do by ghoul · · Score: 1

      Apple uses over 20000 contractors from the Indian Outsourcing companies. Its the most valuable company in the world. So much for circling the drain

      --
      **Life is too short to be serious**
    14. Re:what to do by pnutjam · · Score: 1

      Looks like a Freudian slip. He sees income and payroll as theft, those employees should be grateful to bask in his presence.

    15. Re: what to do by pnutjam · · Score: 1

      Shell companies that buy your product and stockpile it. Not legal, but it happens all the time.

    16. Re:what to do by pnutjam · · Score: 1

      But, but... ...It's the investors who are shouldering the risk,not the employees...

    17. Re:what to do by roman_mir · · Score: 1

      Obviously payroll tax is theft. To me this part does not matter much, it is only a part of the total compensation paid out to an employee, o don't care if I have to pay the source deductions to the employe or to the regime, however it is theft. An employee should be able to receive 100% of his compensation into his hands and invest, save or spend as he sees fit. Government steals that money, there is no fund behind it of any kind, there is only the transfer from the currently employed to the currently retired, and since the fund does not exist, to pay the currently retired the money comes from the tax on the currently employed but also from the future tax on the future employees in form of borrowing. The borrowing means taxation in the future. If you don't see all of this as theft, then I congratulate you, you have been properly 'educated'.

    18. Re:what to do by roman_mir · · Score: 1

      Contracts have nothing to do with government. A handshake is a contract as much as a piece of paper. I don't need a third party in a contract, the government party. Negotiation is between 2 sides, not three.

    19. Re:what to do by Bucc5062 · · Score: 1

      I agree (as I stated to goulh above). I've also seen such situations unfold, even to the point of a company hiring back the people they let go, but now at contractor rates. Stupid.

      --
      Life is a great ride, the vehicle doesn't matter
    20. Re:what to do by Bucc5062 · · Score: 1

      Except if one of those mediocre workers makes a mistake that causes a system shutdown, introduces a bug that costs large amounts of monetary loses, delays a project past a release date that may break contracts. A good manager would have looked at the three and helped establish plans for vacation and sick day coverage. They would also consider what if on someone leaving and work to mitigate such an occurrence. Happy people are productive people. They are also loyal people and they a quality people. I'd take those three over a low cost team any day, because you get what you pay for and that has been the case for a long long time.

      --
      Life is a great ride, the vehicle doesn't matter
    21. Re:what to do by dywolf · · Score: 1

      really?
      so then....if one side breaches the contract, where and how do you enforce it?

      Contracts have everything to do with government.
      Government is what makes contracts enforceable in the first place.

      The alternative if you grab your gun and try to do it yourself.
      But then maybe a life short, brutish, and hard, red in tooth and claw, is the life you want.

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
  15. How will Disney defend itself? by Required+Snark · · Score: 3, Interesting
    I can't think like a lawyer (because I am still human and have not sold my soul to the devil) so it is tough for me to figure out how Disney will try and wriggle out of this. It looks to me like there is no feasible defense. The facts are crystal clear. They broke the law.

    Their big problem is that they fired all the previous workers because hiring Indian 1HB was cheaper, despite the delusional claims in some of the previous posts. Replacements never are paid equal wages in the real world. However, if Disney goes anywhere near that then they can be sued for breaking the 1HB regulations. Just because the Feds side with Big Business in screwing workers doesn't mean that law has been repealed, so civil suites can still provide an individual with some legal recourse.

    This case could really shake things up. In fact, I bet that it never goes to trial and Disney settles out of court because they are terrified what would happen if it got in front of a jury. Unless there is some sort of in court judgement against the workers bringing the suite, you can be sure that this will be the first of a big wave of long overdue lawsuits. I can't wait.

    --
    Why is Snark Required?
    1. Re:How will Disney defend itself? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      It will be easy for Disney to defend itself. They didn't hire the workers. They outsourced their IT work to a third party company. They're the ones that hired the H1B workers. Disney just did what a lot of companies do, something I hear all the time, even in the public sector. Concentrate on your core business. Get rid of everything else. If it's something you still need done, hire an outside group to do that.

      I work in IT at a state university. I've seen/heard this multiple times. Even when pointing out that the outside service will cost more that us doing it ourselves, we're told it's not part of our core mission, so we have to shed it. More than once I've been told I'm bordering on insubordination when pointing out the stupidity of some of the managements decisions.

    2. Re:How will Disney defend itself? by gravewax · · Score: 2

      regardless of how despicable Disney's actions are I find it difficult to see any merit in the law suit the way it is being presented. I doubt Nation of origin or race had anything whatsoever to do with the decision, it was cost and unless you managed to find some damning piece of email or statement that says you can't be born in America or white then this case looks like an attempt to push runny shit up hill. They need to be taken to task for what they are doing but this seems a highly unlikely avenue of success.

    3. Re:How will Disney defend itself? by budgenator · · Score: 1

      " ...looking back, I'm sorry that we did that because there's something insulting about that. That got a huge amount of attention and rubbed people the wrong way, and I completely understand why it would. It just does not pass a smell test, even if it is common practice." Basically Iger admitted creating a hostile work environment.

      --
      Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
    4. Re:How will Disney defend itself? by gravewax · · Score: 1

      and the outcome they need to prove is that Disney actively engaged in discrimination based on race or origin, the end result of no amercians or no whites is not sufficient as you can end up with that with no discrimination whatsoever. They simply have to show they made financial decisions.

  16. Re:I live in Orlando by ErichTheRed · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The ones STILL whining are people who were coasting and now have no relevant skills to keep working for Disney or to go get a new job."

    Spoken like someone who hasn't had this happen to them yet. FYI, if you're serious, it's not just crusty old BOFHs and mainframers that are getting this treatment. The loopholes that allow service providers to use H-1Bs to fill non-exceptional positions are basically a cap on salaries. I'm betting the positions that were "found" for all these displaced techies are project managers managing a team of 100 newbie developers replacing the one or two guys who know the internal systems inside and out.

    In IT, everyone's skill sets have a shelf life, and you're only as good as the last set of buzzwords you learned. Even if it's a rehash of a concept you worked with decades ago, experience doesn't matter the same way it does in other fields. You don't see this happening to older doctors, for example.

  17. Trump by fluffernutter · · Score: 2

    I'd be more impressed with Trump if he met with these 250 workers rather than meet with the heads if large IT companies.

    --
    Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    1. Re:Trump by phorm · · Score: 1

      Or the latest meet-and-greet with... Kanye fucking West. You can't even make this shit up anymore.

    2. Re:Trump by unixisc · · Score: 1

      Well, he met Algore and Leo Decrappio, but then turned around and named Scott Pruitt as the EPA director. Maybe he'll appoint somebody that sticks it to Mr Kardashian

    3. Re:Trump by phorm · · Score: 1

      Tom Cruise for minister of religious affairs? :-)

    4. Re:Trump by unixisc · · Score: 1

      Kanye as Secretary of the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice

  18. Depends on how the law's written by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    when we think discrimination we just think: "I hate X because they are X and because I hate X I will do bad things to X".

    But I honestly don't know if the law takes feelings into account like we do. E.g. if under the law discrimination is discrimination regardless of why you're discriminating. I'm guessing they can easily show that the company Disney outsourced too gives preferential treatment to Indians here on work visas. If they're giving preferential treatment to one nationality (Indians) how is that not discrimination? Not that I understand the actual written law enough to say.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
    1. Re:Depends on how the law's written by JoeyRox · · Score: 1

      I think they can argue it's not discrimination by listing legitimate, non-discriminatory reasons why they picked the Indians over Americans. The prime reason could be cost, and they could potentially prove their case by listing rejected salary offers they made to prospective American hires.

    2. Re:Depends on how the law's written by mysidia · · Score: 1

      I think they can argue it's not discrimination by listing legitimate, non-discriminatory reasons why they picked the Indians over Americans.

      That doesn't necessarily work anymore, now that the courts have invented Disparate Impact Theory.
      Even actions that could seem rational for non-discriminatory reasons and seem neutral on their face could still result in being sued over discrimination Via disparate impact.

    3. Re:Depends on how the law's written by JoeyRox · · Score: 1

      Thanks for the link. Here's a clause which I found relevant for this discussion:

      This form of discrimination occurs where an employer does not intend to discriminate; to the contrary, it occurs when identical standards or procedures are applied to everyone, despite the fact that they lead to a substantial difference in employment outcomes for the members of a particular group and they are unrelated to successful job performance. An important thing to note is that disparate impact is not, in and of itself, illegal.[13] This is because disparate impact only becomes illegal if the employer cannot justify the employment practice causing the adverse impact as a "job related for the position in question and consistent with business necessity" (called the "business necessity defense").[14]

    4. Re:Depends on how the law's written by mysidia · · Score: 1

      Business necessity isn't mer inconvenience or mere benefit ---- nothing like "We wanted to save a little bit of money, and we needed to do X to reduce the cost, then found these groups of potential job seekers were the only ones we could exploit via a complex racket involving defrauding the US government", The defense to be successful would have to be something of material necessity such as "It's essential for us to apply certain objective security requirements to reject applicants who have a criminal record, even though prospects with a criminal record are disproportionately African-american, because the employees for this job title will be in a position handling money or working with confidential customer data, And the job cannot be done safely without employees for this position meeting this requirement"

    5. Re:Depends on how the law's written by JoeyRox · · Score: 1

      I think it could be argued that profit is a business necessity, since without it a business wouldn't exist. If one class/nationality of worker is willing to do the work for 1/2 the cost of another and the competency/productivity level can be demonstrated to be the same then I think there's an argument for those hires out of competitive necessity.

    6. Re:Depends on how the law's written by mysidia · · Score: 1

      I think it could be argued that profit is a business necessity, since without it a business wouldn't exist.

      Yes about profit being necessary for a business, No about increased gain or profit alone making it a business necessity.

      That might work as an argument by the Outsourced organization, that They could not be competitive.

      That argument doesn't work for Disney hiring the outsourced organization.

      The amount of costs reduced by the change are a small percentage of the company's overall profit, so
      they're not necessary for doing business.

  19. Re:I live in Orlando by pete6677 · · Score: 1

    No, that's not how it works. You interview for jobs requiring virtualization skills, and you tell them you have virtualization experience. You can talk the talk and answer any questions asked of you intelligently. That's all a modern tech interview is about nowdays anyhow: winning the quiz show. Your future employers don't know precisely what you did on the last job and don't really give a fuck anyway. Just so long as you fit their salary requirements and pass their quiz game in the interview.

    I eagerly await the responses about that one guy who's new boss knew his old boss. They're the extreme exception, not the rule.

  20. Re:Stupid by pete6677 · · Score: 1

    That is very true, but the Trump justice department will operate under very different rules.

  21. Boycott by gabrieltss · · Score: 5, Informative

    I know this is seen as a useless attempt. However, I personally have. Instead of taking our grandson to Disney World two years ago, we took him on a road trip and visited 9 national parks instead. This year again we boycotted Disney and went to NY and Washington DC. Both trips the last two years cost us LESS Than one week in Disney World. A week there is at LEAST $10K (if you stay at one of their resort hotels) for a family. So imagine if 1,000 people did the same thing and saved $10K. That would be $10,000,000 Disney would lose.

    Just a thought....

    --
    The Truth is a Virus!!!
    1. Re:Boycott by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Disney's vacation experience is terrible, anyway.

      I went there with my two kids about eight years ago. We dragged them around the extremely crowded park for a few days where almost all ride lines were two hours long - in the OFF-SEASON. Last two nights we stayed in a hotel on Cocoa Beach, FL, during which it was 69 F, cloudy, and the Atlantic water was extremely cold. Guess which part the kids liked the best?

      Yup, you guessed it: the beach. We've visited state parks, beaches, and mountains ever since. You couldn't pay me to take anyone back to Disney, and I'd advise any parent against going. I'm pretty sure Walt has been spinning in his grave for the past 20 years.

    2. Re:Boycott by oddtodd · · Score: 1

      I have been boycotting Disney for about two decades, ever since I read about the AA Milne heirs vs Disney court saga.

      --
      I have plenty of common sense, I just choose to ignore it. -- Calvin
    3. Re:Boycott by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I know this is seen as a useless attempt. However, I personally have. Instead of taking our grandson to Disney World two years ago, we took him on a road trip and visited 9 national parks instead. This year again we boycotted Disney and went to NY and Washington DC. Both trips the last two years cost us LESS Than one week in Disney World. A week there is at LEAST $10K (if you stay at one of their resort hotels) for a family. So imagine if 1,000 people did the same thing and saved $10K. That would be $10,000,000 Disney would lose.

      Just a thought....

      That's why companies like Disney and McDonald's market directly to the children. The kids don't understand a boycott. All they know is they want to see Mickey and the magical castle and shit.

  22. Re:I live in Orlando by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 2

    And let me guess...you got a job in government IT?

    Nope. Dell for a PC refresh project at the company I worked for before I got laid off for two years. Got promoted to project lead on my first day because I knew the company and everyone in help desk. Got a lot jokes about HR hiring anyone off the street.

    They hire anyone, even the unemployable.

    For the position I applied for in government IT, it required 20+ years of IT experience.

  23. Trump struck out again! by Okian+Warrior · · Score: 1

    I'd be more impressed with Trump if he met with these 250 workers rather than meet with the heads if large IT companies.

    This. It's not as if he was filling arenas with common workers or had thousands in overflow lines waiting to see him.

    Even after the election he might have considered holding rallys with local people. Instead he spent all his time meeting with potential cabinet members.

    There's no way meeting with the heads of IT companies would do the US *any* good. None at all.

    Those companies aren't the biggest abusers of H1B, so meeting with them will do little or no good.

    (Fake news seems to be the meme du-jour, so I thought I'd chip in. :-)

  24. Re: I live in Orlando by ranton · · Score: 1

    Your company isn't responsible for your future employability.

    Any company that thinks like this doesn't care about people and will do unacceptable things to exploit you as an expendable resource. The world is rapidly become a shitter place because of this.

    I agree that a company which doesn't take an employee's career into significant consideration is a poor employer, but the strategic needs of a company will often not coincide with all of its employees. The thought that employees should be able to absolve responsibility of handling their career to their employee is essentially treating them as children incapable of caring for themselves.

    --
    -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
  25. Very funny at this time of year! by dbIII · · Score: 1

    You are seriously writing that just after Thanksgiving? Try doing a host change on a stupidly expensive software licence with a US company over that weekend like I tried this year. I had to wait until Tuesday before some turkey even bothered to reply.

    1. Re:Very funny at this time of year! by plopez · · Score: 1

      Were you dealing with contractors? I and many others I have known have worked holidays, weekends, nights, birthdays, etc. and ended up getting screwed.

      --
      putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
    2. Re:Very funny at this time of year! by dbIII · · Score: 1

      Were you dealing with contractors

      No. A very large company that used to be run by a guy that is a very poor choice of hunting partner and who had trouble keeping his business and political life apart. They could certainly afford to pay somebody weekend rates to answer emails.

  26. Conspiracy by maz2331 · · Score: 1

    The arrangement looks like a conspiracy to violate the relevant laws. The outsourcing firm and Disney are both equally on the hook here.

  27. Re:I live in Orlando by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The good old days are finished for the sociopath BOFH and his antisocial assistant. In the era of social media, every job requires top notch social skills. IT was the traditional field for the socially awkward, but no longer, and there's nowhere else left either, as other jobs are being automated out of existence. Truck driver, gone. Retail clerk, gone. Lawn mower, gone.

  28. Re:I live in Orlando by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    What, did Slashdot grow out of it's memes then? I guess no one has set us up the bomb around here recently...

  29. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  30. Re:Dear Disney... Prepare to be TRUMPED by mmell · · Score: 1

    "Yeah - you wanna keep bringin' in those feriners to take good 'Murican jobs, you better stop makin' those Star Wars films that portray orange people as bad guys. Bring back Song of the South and we'll even let you have more of 'em!"

  31. Re:I live in Orlando by serviscope_minor · · Score: 2

    Also, there is no such thing as someone being "bias".

    Unless you're the personification of bias. I am become bias, destroyer of estimators.

    --
    SJW n. One who posts facts.
  32. Re:I live in Orlando by Ihlosi · · Score: 1
    Unless you're the personification of bias. I am become bias, destroyer of estimators.

    Statistics is always a bit of a gamble.

  33. Just stop supporting Disney by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    If Disney will not hire USAian wokers, USAians should not support Disney. Don't take you kids to the amusement park. Don't see it's movies.

    Why should you support an organization that sees no value in people such as yourself.

    I would not sue though. The law and lawsuits only work to support those in power. You workers have no power. Disney and India has the power.

    1. Re:Just stop supporting Disney by ghoul · · Score: 1

      India has no power. If India had power their best and brightest would be staying at home to develop India instead of doing mind numbing IT work in USA for which they are overqualified

      --
      **Life is too short to be serious**
  34. Good luck with that by damn_registrars · · Score: 1

    That lawsuit doesn't stand a chance under the "liberal" administration of President Lawnchair. Once the country shifts to the whims of Trump it's all over for the workers.

    --
    Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
  35. Re:I live in Orlando by Major+Blud · · Score: 1

    And let me guess...you got a job in government IT?

    I have no idea where this guy got this idea. I've spent over a decade working alongside State governments, and it's damn near impossible to fire or layoff a government employee.

    --
    If you post as Anonymous Coward, don't expect a reply.
  36. Re:SJW says: "You can't discriminate against white by buddyglass · · Score: 1

    I took the hypocrisy a different direction. Namely, if you support the autonomy of business owners to hire/fire/serve whomever they choose, as many on the right do, then you should not be sympathetic to the plaintiffs in this suit.

  37. Re:I live in Orlando by buddyglass · · Score: 1

    Seems like the remedy to this would be to leave your current job as soon as you recognize that virtualization is starting to get popular and take a job somewhere using that technology before it gets popular enough for there to be a wealth of candidates with relevant experience. Basically, "jump on the new hot thing". Alternately, get some sort of certification that says "I know virtualization". Surely something like that exists; IT industry is gaga for certifications.

  38. Re:I live in Orlando by buddyglass · · Score: 1

    Where are you living that you had to apply for legit minimum wage jobs? There's a restaurant about to open along the path of my commute to work. They're hiring bus boys at $12/hour. The baggers at the grocery store make $10/hr. And I live in a city & state with local minimum wage.

  39. "Let them gooooo!" by DarthVain · · Score: 1

    Sounds like a new Disney movie with a suited CEO twirling around on top of a pile of money belting out a song called "Let them goooo!"

    Seriously though some indie or competitor should make a Disney parody animated movie of the whole situation... Just try to to get too racist with what animals used to represent everyone!

  40. Here's a minimum wage I support by zerofoo · · Score: 1

    The H1B visa was designed to enable companies to recruit the rarest, most sought-after skilled workers. Therefore, I propose an H1B visa minimum wage of $150,000/year - and increases annually with CPI.

    This would fix the H1B visa abuse problem immediately.

    1. Re:Here's a minimum wage I support by rholtzjr · · Score: 1

      A better solution would be a percentage above Standard Industry rate for the geographical location. Also restrict Staffing Agencies from even applying for H1B visas as well. And no third-party payment processing for said H1B applicant, the salary need to be paid directly to the H1B worker..

  41. H1B's need to be stopped by p51d007 · · Score: 1

    Per se... There needs to be MORE restrictions on H1B's. If there are qualified American's to take a job, and the company doesn't want to pay them what they are worth, they should NOT be allowed to just grab some poor soul overseas, and pay them squat just to undercut an American worker.

  42. Did you guys read the article? by lamer01 · · Score: 1

    Trump has appointed Iger (Disney CEO) and Stephen Schwarzman, the CEO of Blackstone (staunch supporter and investor of outsourcing firms) to his 'President's Strategic and Policy Forum'. Very doubtful that his policies will be anti H1B

    1. Re:Did you guys read the article? by unixisc · · Score: 1

      Uh, no, he was railing against Goldman Sachs, but appointed Steve Mnuchin and Wilbur Ross to his cabinet. Even if he agrees to increase H1Bs, he'll probably put a price tag on the #US workers that must be employed

  43. Re:I live in Orlando by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    Where are you living that you had to apply for legit minimum wage jobs?

    Silicon Valley. There were seven applicants for every job opening in 2009 and 2010. Minimum wage employers refused to hire "overqualified" workers because they would quit when the economy got better. In 2011, it was three applicants for every job opening. A normal economy has two applicants for every job opening.

  44. Re:I live in Orlando by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    I have no idea where this guy got this idea.

    I've mentioned in previous comments that my current job is government IT. Some commenters try to use it as an insult: "Gee... If this guy got laid off for two years, and now works for the government, he must not be very good." Never mind that I worked seven days a week for two years on 20+ different contracts after filing for chapter seven bankruptcy in 2011.

    I've spent over a decade working alongside State governments, and it's damn near impossible to fire or layoff a government employee.

    Full-time employees are difficult to fire, but contractors are easy to fire. Some contractors who get hired are shocked that they have to work at a government job. The few who insists on not doing any work at all are fired within two weeks of being hired. Some contractors have gotten fired for "anti-social behavior" (i.e., irritating the hell out of the full-time staff). Since everyone is ex-military, they have zero tolerance for crap.

  45. need to sue Disney and the staffing / outsourcing by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    need to sue Disney and the staffing / outsourcing firm and let the courts decide who is at fault / who needs to pay x%.

  46. Video of legal experts disqualifying Americans by acoustix · · Score: 1

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCbFEgFajGU

    It's hard to believe that this video is 9 years old already, but it shows how companies conspire to disqualify American workers.

    --
    "A plan fiendishly clever in its intricacies"- Homer Simpson
  47. Re:I live in Orlando by Major+Blud · · Score: 1

    What I said was in no-way meant to be offensive, so I apologize if I came across that way. Just like all industries, government has those that work-hard as well as those who are dead-weight.

    Full-time employees are difficult to fire, but contractors are easy to fire.

    That's more in line with the point I was trying to make. Government employees tend to have a fairly high degree of job security; the contractors working on government projects, not so much.

    --
    If you post as Anonymous Coward, don't expect a reply.
  48. "Make them accurate" by mmell · · Score: 1

    Why? Nobody else does. That's how we ended up with a mock ginger for a President.

  49. Re:I live in Orlando by superwiz · · Score: 1

    You are talking about companies in which the management comes from ex techies (and doesn't know how to manage). These are the majority because the poor management skills force the companies to try to compensate by having high churn and hiring a lot of workers. Companies which have trained management are capable of going through aptitude tests which you cannot prepare for, but then you cannot fully prepare for a job where you are supposed to do what hasn't been done before (well, at least you will be doing what no one was doing before in a year or two). If you join a techke-ran company, you'll be using most state of the art equipment to simulate environments which existed for 30-40 years because the management thinks that's "hard core".

    --
    Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
  50. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  51. I have been there too, and you are off a little... by gosand · · Score: 1

    I have worked at a few Fortune X (single and low double digit) companies. ... What is it that ensnares the bean counters to prefer this situation over hiring qualified local candidates? I honestly don't get it. Why is it "better" to pay some unqualified person a low wage, tack on a substantial fee paid to the body shop, and then have everyone suffer through the extended delivery times, angst, etc. It can't be cheaper to do it this way, and if it is, it could not possibly be enough of a savings to merit delaying the delivery of what the business needs in a timely manner. Or can it?

    I too have worked for a couple of the large companies, in this case banks, and I was in testing management. Bean counters care about beans. That's it. They never directed anyone to use offshore resources, they delivered the message that money had to be saved. Here is how I saw it go down multiple times.

    I had a testing team that consisted of about 30% US employees and the rest contractors from a firm like TCS or Infosys (usually a mix of offshore/onshore/nearshore). For a team of about 50 people we tested a dozen or so projects. Projects came and went, and the number of contractors depended on the workload. That gave me flexibility, which was required. But what would happen is that the higher-ups would give the 'haircut' directive - everyone had to cut their budget by 10%. They didn't care how you did it.

    So what some managers figured out was that you can keep some higher priced people around (again, contractors and not employees) for these times, and let them go to satisfy the haircut. Or you can flex your team and use more offshore instead of onshore. This was all built into the framework that TCS/Infosys had in place. Those onshore workers just got other positions in other teams. Or, you negotiate a fixed-bid contract with them - they will work on Project X for Y dollars. You go through all of this in excruciating detail and meet your budget number while still handling the project workload.

    Until upper management comes back 6 months later and ask for another 10% cut. By that point you are working as cheaply as possible. Which makes the 10% cut even harder, because instead of being able to cut 5 people to meet the 10%, you have to cut 15 people because you were using offshore resources that cost 1/3 the price. So you have to start turning away work, which leads to projects getting pushed out, which leads to wasted money, which eventually leads to - you guessed it - budget cuts. But by that time, those people who made those cuts had moved on to a different position in the organization.

    It was a horrible viscous cycle that I went through more than once, and saw other people go through as well. Sadly, it's the nature of the beast which is why I left the big corporate world. I was a successful manager who was in meetings 30 hours a week, and most of my time outside of meetings was spent pouring over how much my team was costing. The crazy part was that it was all internal money, and would shift quickly and often. It was a machine that chose to run like that. And like clockwork, every 8 months there were organizational and/or senior management changes.

    So back to your comments - I don't think that the bean counters make those decisions. I think they simply deliver the message of those who tell them to, which in my experience was the management who were 4-5 levels down from the CEO. We had a system in place to use mostly contractors because they were fungible and cheaper. Most of the senior people were employees, and we couldn't hire the contractors to be full time because of contract agreements. I think those agencies are the ones who made out really well, because they embedded themselves in the company so well that it would be hard to replace them. You know... kind of like what employees used to be able to do.

    --

    My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.

  52. Re:Race? by budgenator · · Score: 1

    Hindustanis, Basically any Caucasian darker than a European ethnic is being considered a separate race now. The newest is MENA, Middle Eastern-North African. The Census is having a shit hemorrhage because Americans with Latino surnames are identifying as white instead of Hispanics, they can't speak Mexican or Spanish, have blue eyes and blond hair but the politics of racial decisiveness wants them to identify as Hispanic/Latino.

    --
    Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
  53. native names by unixisc · · Score: 1

    Bharat is Hindi for India, just like Nippon is Japanese for Japan or Deutschland is German for Germany. Hindustan is also used as a term, except that it then confuses the religion w/ the population. Although India has done some bizarre renaming in recent years, renaming cities like Bombay, Madras, Calcutta and Bangalore to Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Bengalaru: the last 4 are the vernacular translations of their names, or how their locals call them. It would be the equivalent of renaming Moscow to Moskva.

  54. H1B minimum wages by unixisc · · Score: 1

    The h1b min wage needs to be 80k-110k

    I quite agree w/ this: once they put such a limit, you'll automatically see companies stop asking for those caps to be raised.

    However, the alternatives they will then have will be to either move all the work offshore, assuming that it's doable offshore, or not do them at all. Remember - the reason that the jobs aren't in-house or onshore is the expense. If they can't afford the latter in the first place, then they'll simply have to either offshore ALL of it, or stop doing it altogether.

    So let's say that they get a project and move that to India. They can't get H1Bs here, so local managers would have to work w/ those people and do what they can to satisfy the client. Sooner or later, the client will have to weigh whether the shoddy job done offshore is better than no job done at all, if they can't budget for bringing the work in-house.

    However, it remains true that a company does have a responsibility to its shareholders to maximize its profits, its customers to minimize its prices, and employees to provide growth opportunities. If they figure out a way to crack down on actually offshoring such jobs, they will have successfully screwed up all three.

  55. immigrants' goals by unixisc · · Score: 1

    It's not so much a question of stupid: it's that unlike immigrants in the past who migrated to the US to assimilate, H1B immigrants of today come here only for economic reasons, not b'cos they wanna become Americans.

    One can see that in the various ethnic enclaves in some major cities. Like in the Bay Area, Sunnyvale and Santa Clara have a big population of Indian H1Bs, who primarily speak Hindi/Telegu/Tamil/Gujrati amongst themselves, watch Bollywood and are not here to assimilate. That's different from someone who was born to immigrants as a kid, but whose exposure was purely in an English speaking setting, and who grows up initially on Disney and later on Hollywood. It may take a generation, but the difference b/w yesterday's immigrants and todays is that yesterday's immigrants actively worked to become Americans and did, whereas today's immigrants couldn't care less.

  56. Re:I live in Orlando by buddyglass · · Score: 1

    I typo'd that. Meant to say I live in a city/state with NO local minimum wage. So it's just the federal one.

  57. Re:I live in Orlando by buddyglass · · Score: 1

    What jobs actually pay minimum wage in Silicon Valley? Honest question. The only ones I can think of that maybe pay minimum wage in Austin are things like overnight cleaning staff. And I suspect even those guys make more than minimum wage. Walmart greeter, Starbucks person, guy who works the register at The Gap...they all make more than minimum wage.

  58. Disney Recruiters by whitelabrat · · Score: 1

    I got approached by a Disney IT recruiter looking to get my interest. I think 10 years ago I would have taken it seriously as a good opportunity, but I just laughed when I saw the invite. Nobody with real skills is going to take Disney seriously anymore. I won't work for any shitbag H1-B trash heap. Took a serious pay cut leaving Cisco. Those places only prove a few things. 1. Shareholder profits mean more than you do. 2. The management is douchy. 3. You won't be working with quality co-workers, just cheap ones.

    So to Disney and your jobs: Fuck off.

  59. Except they did... by thunderclees · · Score: 1

    Head shops from South Asia act like they have never heard of US diversity laws.

  60. Re:I live in Orlando by desdinova+216 · · Score: 1

    I think the bomb was slathered with hot grits