The US government has opened an investigation against two of India’s biggest IT companies for possible violations of H1-B visa rules, according to a report.
The Department of Labour has opened the investigation against Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Infosys for “possible violations of rules for visas for foreign technology workers under contracts they held with an electric utility Southern California Edison,” the New York Times said.
Indian Information technology outsourcing companies are the biggest recipients H1-B visas, provided by the Department of Labor because of dearth of skilled native workers. TCS and Infosys owe a large share of their revenue to the US markets.
Southern California Edison had recently issued more than 500 pink slips to technology workers amid allegations that many of those laid off were made to train their replacements who were immigrants on the temporary work visas brought in by the Indian firms. Senators Richard Durbin of Illinois and Jeff Sessions of Alabama announced the investigation after they were notified by the labor department, the report said.
The U.S. Labour Department took vigilance of the matter days after the New York Times had reported that hundreds of employees at entertainment giant Walt Disney were laid off and replaced with Indians holding H1-B visas.
According to the report, about 250 Disney employees were told in late October last year that they would be laid off and many of their jobs were transferred to immigrants on H1-B visas brought in by an outsourcing firm based in India.