Fired IT workers file lawsuit re H-1B replacements

[DelJo63]

Eighteen IT workers in California have filed a lawsuit against their former employer claiming they were replaced by H-1B workers from India and then laid off in violation of the state's anti-discrimination laws.

In the lawsuit, the 18 workers say that IT managers at Molina Healthcare Inc. increasingly catered to the Indian workers while leaving U.S. workers, mostly security analysts and programmers who earned at least $75,000 a year, feeling excluded prior getting laid off last year.

The lawsuit, filed in April in Los Angeles Superior Court against Molina, its CIO at the time, and Molina's outsourcer, Cognizant Technology Solutions, contends that over a period of several years the U.S. workers were marginalized as the IT department became dominated by Indian nationals.

please see the original Computerworld.com article for details

 

[Archean]

I am not surprised at all, especially since these indians may in fact be cheaper to hire. Also, being in HR, I am sure the company in question would have prepared meticulous documentation trail to cover all its tracks. Unfortunately when capitalism's ugly head rares up in such fashion, it means the organization considers its experienced people as 'cost' hence, they will always look to reduce it.

 

[DelJo63]

Spot on - - and that's the problem with globalization. Thinking only of the bottom line quickly leads to issues like this, the current EU fiasco, loss of jobs (duh) and an economy that sinks to the lowest common denominator. Once upon a time, the U.S. was the dominant industrial nation (re WW II production and Detroit automobiles) - - now we only dominate the Corporate Holding Company universe and manufacture zippo.

Here's a short story that exemplifies how to keep a market:

My wife took up desktop publishing in the late '80s - - and Macs were the niche environment for same. When it came time for Internet access, I went to Fry's Electronics to get a dial-modem (that's long before DSL & Cable). Walking to the checkout counter it dawned upon me "AWE S***, I ought to go to a Mac store for this. If I want Mac to survive and be there when I need Mac only parts and software, I need to support those merchants NOW!" So I dropped the modem, walked directly across the street and bought a modem from the local Mac merchant. Sure, I paid a whopping $2.50 extra for my choice - - happily
​

IMO, care and feeding of the masses leads to disposable income which feeds and grows an economy. The converse leads to a $1.95 improvement to some bottom line and bread lines. (oh I forgot, that was the New Deal, and this is the Raw Deal :giggle.

 

[Archean]

the U.S. was the dominant industrial nation

But then it was taken over by the boys with shiny MBA degrees from Harvard and others, who though we can make more money by lending credit to people (i.e. creating debt) and then bundle that debt (along with many other into CDS) to sell it, again. Anyway long and the short of it is, 40% of the wealth in US is owned/controlled by 1% and that tells a lot, for one thing, it tells you the system is failing in a major way.

By the way Jo, where are the Worker Rights movements / unions? I mean if something like this was happening in France, I'm sure half of the country will be shut down in no time.

 

[DelJo63]

By the way Jo, where are the Worker Rights movements / unions? I mean if something like this was happening in France, I'm sure half of the country will be shut down in no time.

hmm; Having been in the business since '66, let me tell you about software engineering (ie programming) and business.
Every attempt to form a union (for programmers) has failed for multiple reasons:

1. programmers have been classified as EXEMPT workers by the (domestic) department of labor.
   this means, we work for a salary and not per hour wage rates, but "get compensation time off" :giggle:
   which obviously negates anything like overtime.
   However, we do get to negotiate individual salaries, vacations,
   (sometimes stock options) and other benefits that are not uniform within a specific employer (ie: very non-union)
   
   
2. going union would negate the negotiated terms of employment, which could be a significant loss.
   
   
3. Employers get very nasty when there is an attempt to organize and make it clear that personal advancement will terminate and . . .
   so likely will your career (like so many other things, a reality that gets very difficult to prove in court).
   
   
4. If an attempt to organize does get to a vote, it has failed due to items 2+3 having such large emotional impact.

As they say, you can't have your cake and eat it too, so the benefits outweigh the protections of being organized and when the shoe drops, you have to eat the consequences.

Back at the turn of the 20th century, AFL-CIO was big and won many things we take for granted today.
But union membership across the U.S. is waning to the point that membership is now in the single digit percentages - -
the Teamsters seem to be the last bastion of any consequence (UAW is a subset I believe).

 

[captaincranky]

Back at the turn of the 20th century, AFL-CIO was big and won many things we take for granted today.
But union membership across the U.S. is waning to the point that membership is now in the single digit percentages - -
the Teamsters seem to be the last bastion of any consequence (UAW is a subset I believe).

Indeed the UAW is part of the Teamsters. http://www.aflcio.org/aboutus/unions/ As is your friendly neighborhood mailman, (NLCA). That is, unless he or she is a rural carrier, which have their separate, non-affiliated union, the NRLCA.

It's hard to talk about this issue objectively, without being branded a racist. But, the fact of the matter is, Indian tech employees have been ia thorn in the side of american engineers for decades.

India is a predominately a poor country, and as such, its citizens have a different concept of what would be "fair compensation", for a day's wage, as compared to an american pay scale.

Accordingly, american companies are all too eager to replace american workers with indian workers.

My personal experience doing business with Indians, is in the arena of electronics sales. I found it really wasn't worth it to take up my time selling them anything, as the price they would strive for would likely be under dealer cost, and you would have to work for hours before they would be willing to buy it at that loss. Normally, I found the best approach, would be to quote them a fair, manageable price, then go have coffee, and return to the sales floor after they've left.

 

[Archean]

It's hard to talk about this issue objectively, without being branded a racist. But, the fact of the matter is, Indian tech employees have been ia thorn in the side of american engineers for decades.

I don't think it is a racist comment, you are simply stating a fact.

My personal experience doing business with Indians, is in the arena of electronics sales. I found it really wasn't worth it to take up my time selling them anything, as the price they would strive for would likely be under dealer cost, and you would have to work for hours before they would be willing to buy it at that loss. Normally, I found the best approach, would be to quote them a fair, manageable price, then go have coffee, and return to the sales floor after they've left.

I think this is very true for people from most of the south east asian countries.

But union membership across the U.S. is waning to the point that membership is now in the single digit percentages - -
the Teamsters seem to be the last bastion of any consequence (UAW is a subset I believe).

That is a sad fact, perhaps a reflection of times we live in. Unorganized labor is what the business want, that enable them to dictate employment terms, and most of the time it means violation of prevailing laws.