• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager
• BL Club
• Smartbuy
• Books

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth
• Events 2007

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Mr Som Mittal

Our Bureaus

Bangalore/New Delhi, April 24 For the second time in two years, US Senators Mr Chuck Grassley and Mr Dick Durbin proposed a legislation that aims to curb the use of H-1B and L1 visas.

On Thursday, they introduced a bill that prohibits employers from hiring additional H-1B and L-1 guest workers if over 50 per cent of their employees in the US are H-1B and L-1 visa holders. The H1-B programme allows US companies to bring in foreign skilled workers when such skills are in short supply.

Terming the introduction of legislation in the US Senate to reform the H-1B and L1 visa programme as unfair, the Indian IT industry said it would curb the competitiveness of the offshore vendors in the largest IT services market.

Stating that such a provision was clearly targeting the Indian IT industry, the Nasscom President, Mr Som Mittal, said it restricts the offshore vendors’ ability to compete in the US market. “It denies the opportunity of competing fairly in the US. It is erroneous to say that Indian workers are cheaper than the US workers. There are costs involved in sending Indian workers there. But since it is our business model, we have to go,” Mr Mittal said.

Indian IT companies only corner 11,000-12,000 visas each year, with an average stay working out to less than two years. “The unemployment and the job losses in the US are around the construction, manufacturing and retail sectors and not technology,” Mr Mittal said.

“It is an antithesis to globalisation and a restrictive trade practice,” said Mr Pratik Kumar, Executive Vice-President – HR, Wipro Ltd. “Over the years India has helped US to compete globally and this has brought benefits to both countries. A reversal of this could impact US economy adversely,” he said.

The US, Mr Mittal said, is short of tech-resources, and companies such as Microsoft and Cisco have been hiring people of foreign origin. “Even Indian companies there are making an attempt to hire permanent or local staff, but it is a case of shortage,” he said.

In 2008, four of the top five H1-B recipients were Indian IT firms. Infosys topped the 2008 list with 4,559 visas followed by Wipro with 2,678, Satyam with 1,917 and TCS with 1,539 H1-B permits. However, this year, the demand is much less due to the weak market and the Indian vendors have applied for fewer visas.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said last week that it received about 44,000 H-1B petitions, sizeably less than the cap of 65,000. In the past few years, the quota was usually filled within a couple of days.

Awaiting further details, Mr Mohandas Pai, Head of HR at Infosys, said, “It is not clear if it is only for new visas or whether it would impact the existing people”.

Analysts said even if the legislation is passed, there would not be much of an impact on the wage structures, as the compensation for an employee deputed on H1-B is comparable with that for a local hire. There could be issues with managing a more global workforce and cultural dynamics such as difference in working style would be a challenge, an HR advisor said.

However, Mr Sid Pai, Managing Director of offshore advisory firm TPI India, said that the protectionist measure was positive for offshoring. “If Indian engineers are unavailable to do work in the US, the work will have to be sent to India. Typically, work that directly affects the customers is sensitive, and could be retained in the US,” Mr Pai said.

More Stories on : Software | Policy | Human Resources

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Copyright © 2009, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line