Friday, June 23, 2006

Programmers Group Files Complaints Over H-1B Abuse

An industry group representing technical and professional workers in the information technology field is targeting employers who are actively recruiting for H-1B visa holders. The Programmers Guild, which lobbies against H-1B and offshore outsourcing, said that it has filed compliants with the U.S. Department of Justice this year over the efforts by over 300 companies that have posted jobs that specifically express preferences towards hiring foreign workers on H-1B visas. Under the law, it's illegal to discriminate against U.S. workers on the basis of immigration status. The move comes as large U.S. technology vendors have begun to push for an increase in the annual cap of H-1B visas, which is currently at 65,000. The group said that it is targeting job postings on DICE and MONSTER where employers have stated they "require candidates for H1B from India", and "we do prefer H1B holders". Employers argued that an increase in H-1B visas is necessary because of the difficulty of finding employees to fill high tech jobs here. The Programmers Guild suit mostly covers small staffing agencies and smaller employers.

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