Outsourcing firm fined for H-1B violations

by Grant Gross

May 2, 2008 —

A U.S. provider of outsourcing and IT services has agreed to pay civil penalties
of US$45,000 to settle allegations that it discriminated against U.S. residents
when attempting to hire foreign workers holding H-1B visas, the U.S. Department
of Justice announced late Thursday.

The settlement with iGate
Mastech also requires the company to train its recruiters and post a nondiscrimination
statement on its Web
site, the DOJ said. In addition to headquarters in Pittsburgh, the company
has offices in three other U.S. cities, as well as Canada, Bulgaria and four
cities in India.

Between May 9, 2006, and June 4, 2006, iGate placed 30 job announcements for
computer programmers that "expressly favored" H-1B visa holders to
the exclusion of legal U.S. workers, the DOJ said in a news release. The company
engaged in citizenship status discrimination, which is prohibited by U.S. law,
the DOJ said.

"We are committed to protecting the right of all authorized workers in
the United States against citizenship status discrimination," Grace Chung
Becker, acting assistant attorney general for the DOJ's Civil Rights Division,
said in a statement.

An iGate spokesman didn't immediately respond to a request for comments on
the settlement.

Many large tech companies, including Microsoft
and Symantec, have pushed
for the U.S. Congress to increase the number of H-1B visas available each year.
The current annual cap is 65,000, plus an additional 20,000 for graduate students
studying in the U.S. In recent years, the annual H-1B cap has been filled within
days after the government opened the application period.

But critics of the H-1B program have suggested the program is often abused.
U.S. companies often hire foreign workers when U.S. workers are available, critics
have alleged. Outsourcing companies are major users of the H-1B program, critics
have also pointed out.

The Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices
in the DOJ's Civil Rights Division will monitor iGate to ensure compliance with
the settlement agreement, the DOJ said.

IDG News Service