Indian IT firm in the dock

NEW JERSEY, FEB 18 - Researches show that migrants and their families largely enter the United States to work and thus boost its economy. However, the number of visas is very limited and does not come close to meeting labor market demands.

Government studies predict a shortage of low-skilled workers - about two million - in the years ahead. But immigration restrictions being proposed or tabled in the Congress do not seem to reflect this ground reality.

The net benefit of immigration to the United States is nearly $10 billion every year. Seventy percent of immigrants arrive in prime working age and this means not a penny was spent for them in terms of education and the like. Yet over the next 20 years they are expected to pump $500 billion into the country's social security system.

Contrary to reports that immigrants take away jobs from U.S. citizens, they supplement rather than displace native workers. A recent study by the University of California-Davis reveals that immigrant workers fill jobs in certain industries that are not filled by American workers -- such as meatpacking plants in Nebraska, chicken processing plants in Delaware and Maryland and oil-drilling projects in Alaska where there are many Filipino workers.

Indian-American gets life term

NEW JERSEY, FEB 18 - An Indian-American has been sentenced to life imprisonment without parole after he was convicted of killing a student in a shooting spree at a Cleveland university in Ohio three years ago.

The jury spared Biswanath Halder (65), born in Kolkata, the death penalty.

In May 2003, Halder went berserk at Case Western Reserve University and left Norman Wallace, a 30-year-old graduate student, dead in a shooting rampage. Two others were injured in the seven-hour siege.

Halder, who appeared to have shown no remorse during the trial, had a grouse against the university he once attended, accusing a computer lab employee of hacking into a web site he had created to help fellow Indians set up businesses.

Halder hesitantly apologized to the family of the victim after the judge told him that Wallace's relatives were present in the courtroom and that he owed them an apology.

NEW JERSEY, FEB 18 - A Californian law firm is all set to file a class action lawsuit against Indian software giant Infosys Technologies for allegedly failing to pay overtime wages to its foreign workers in California, i.e. Indian computer programmers, software engineers working in that state.

The law firm, United Employees Law Group, claims to be investigating allegations that software engineers and programmers brought to California from India on H-1B visas are being paid considerably less than what the law stipulates.

Californian labor laws protect employees from unfair business practices like unpaid overtime.

According to details available on the website of the law firm, if a California-based employee, whether a US citizen or foreign citizen holding an H-1B visa, works in the computer software industry and is not paid at least $47.81 per hour or the annual salary equivalent of approximately $99,445, and works more than eight hours a day or 40 hours a week, he or she may be entitled to overtime wages.

The law firm has invited employees of Infosys Technologies in California to write in and give details in case they were paid less than $47.81 per hour.

Last year, an American-Indian owned software company Computech Corp based in Michigan agreed to pay $2.25 million in back wages and $400,000 in fines to settle a U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) complaint that it underpaid its 232 H-1B (immigrant) workers. The settlement was the largest back wage payment ordered under the H-1B program, according to a DOL spokesman.

Computech - a Certified Minority Business Enterprise, was also prohibited from participating in the H-1B visa program for 18 months under an agreement with DOL.

Responding to an email sent by Mumbai's Daily News & Analysis newspaper, Infosys Technologies said that it adhered to all regulations in the countries that it operated in. �Infosys is a company that adheres to all legislation in all the countries we operate in. We are in compliance to the best of our knowledge in all areas,� the statement said.

The statement did not respond whether the company was in receipt of any communication from the said law firm or whether any of its employees could have brought any such (illegal) practice to the notice of the law firm.

Infosys� headcount grew almost ten-fold from 6,000 in 1999 to over 60,000 professionals last year as more American and European firms outsourced work to the Bangalore-based IT services firm.

Related stories:

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Alberta needs 100,000 more workers

NEW JERSEY, JAN 31: The Alberta provincial government in Canada has projected that its super-heated economy will be short 100-thousand workers over the next decade.

Its new report calls for relaxed federal immigration policies to allow more skilled workers to come to Alberta from outside of Canada. It is also calling for a stronger push to train more workers and better recruitment programs.

It also plans to hold 60 meetings over the next several months to deal with the shortage of workers.

"We are short on technicians, trades, welders and construction laborers, and foreign assistance may be needed to fill the gaps," said Tom Collins, a vice-president with PricewaterhouseCoopers' Calgary practice. "It is conceivable that we will see complete oilsands projects in Canada being built totally by Chinese labor."

PricewaterhouseCoopers are an international energy expert. There are 48 oilsands projects currently on the go - with an estimated capital expenditure of $75 billion - "but there just aren't enough skilled people to build them."

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