Skill Bill & Pascrell's H.R. 4378 Bill

[arnet]

There is a pending bill Pascrelli Bill HR 4378 in congress. Not sure whether this bill really talks about any retrogression issues other than putting cap/reduction on H1B quota:

Article:

The Programmers Guild Calls on Congress to include U.S. Worker Protections in the Pending SKIL Bill H-1b Visa Legislation


The current H-1b visa cap of 65,000 would never be reached if this guest-worker program were reformed to limit its use to those cases where no qualified U.S. workers are available and close the loopholes that legally permit the underpayment of market wages. Congressman Pascrell’s H.R. 4378 would provide those reforms.

(PRWEB) October 10, 2006 -- The SKIL Bill (Securing Knowledge Innovation and Leadership - S.2611) was introduced by Senator John Cornyn (R-TX). Co-sponsors include senators George Allen (R-VA), Wayne Allard (R-CO), Robert Bennett (R-UT), Michael Enzi (R-WY), and Trent Lott (R-MS). The SKIL Bill would create a floating H-1b cap that could flood nearly 1.5 million H-1b guest-workers into the U.S. tech job market over the next seven years.

Recent studies by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and IEEE demonstrate that the current H-1b program does not protect U.S. workers. “It is legal to sponsor H-1b workers even when qualified U.S. workers are available,” according to Kim Berry, president of the Programmers Guild.

For example, in nearly every month from January 2001 through March 2006 the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) sponsored H-1b guest-workers to fill civil engineering positions, even though there were qualified U.S. candidates reachable on civil service exam lists. As of September 27, 2006, there were 87 top-ranked candidates on the Caltrans "transportation engineer (civil)" list.

Caltrans public information officer David Anderson explains that "Caltrans establishes hiring practices and policies for all its managers. Hiring foreign nationals with H-1b visas is consistent with these policies and practices." Thus while Governor Schwarzenegger advocates for guest-worker programs "when there are not enough U.S. workers," the policy of the State of California is to sponsor H-1B guest-workers even when qualified U.S. workers are available.

Another problem with the current H-1B program is that it allows employers to pay H-1b workers wages that are substantially below market wages. The September 30, 2006 Detroit News article "Do Visas Hurt U.S. Workers" found that all of the top 10 users of H-1b workers in Michigan paid them wages $12,000 to $26,000 below industry average. A study by the Programmers Guild made similar findings.

A key proponent of expanding the H-1B program under the SKIL Bill is the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). “It is not that law offices have trouble hiring technical staff, but rather that displacing U.S. workers represents a $100,000,000 industry for AILA,” according to Berry. Currently, AILA is providing boilerplate letters in support of the SKIL Bill and encouraging its members and their clients to send them to Congressmen.

“The H-1b guest-worker program is fundamentally flawed,” according to Kim Berry, president of the Programmers Guild. "Employers from state governments down to the smallest body shops hire H-1b workers in spite of a surplus of qualified U.S. workers, and pay them below market wages."

Another pending bill, Congressman Pascrell's H.R. 4378, the "Defend the American Dream Act of 2005" would remove the gaping loopholes which currently allow employers to underpay H-1Bs yet be in full compliance with the law. It would also require employers to first recruit U.S. citizens and permanent residents before they could sponsor H-1b workers. "If the provisions of the Pascrell bill were in effect, the current H-1B cap would be more than sufficient" according to Norm Matloff, Professor of Computer Science.

Accordingly, the Programmers Guild calls on Congress to implement the H-1b reforms in the Pascrell Bill as part of any other legislative changes to the H-1b quota.

“If the SKIL Bill passes without reforms to protect U.S. workers, 30% of U.S. tech workers may have their professions destroyed by a Congress that should be protecting the constitutional liberty interest of Americans to pursue their chosen profession,” according to Berry. “We fear that SKIL Bill passage will occur after hours as a Trojan horse by attaching it to a “must pass” omnibus appropriations bill, without any meaningful hearings on its consequences.”

ABOUT US

The Programmers Guild advocates for the interests of U.S. computer programmers and other tech workers. The Guild supports Congressman Pascrell’s H.R. 4378, which would amend H-1B legislation to require employers to first recruit U.S. workers, along with other protections. See www.programmersguild.org for more information.

REFERENCES

SKIL Bill – Bill to double the H-1B visa quota:
http://www.theorator.com/bills109/s2691.html
http://www.informationweek.com/manag...leID=192503648

SKIL Bill Sponsors
Senator John Cornyn (R-TX): (202) 224-2934 – formerly an attorney
Senator George Allen (R-VA): (202) 224-4024 – formerly an attorney
Senator Wayne Allard (R-CO): (202) 224-5941 – formerly a Veterinarian
Senator Robert Bennett (R-UT): (202) 224-5444 – formerly a management consultant
Senator Michael Enzi (R-WY): (202) 224-3424 – formerly a computer programmer
Senator Trent Lott (R-MS): (202) 224-6253 – formerly an attorney

Pascrell Bill – Would add U.S. worker protections to H-1B:
http://www.pascrell.house.gov/issues2.cfm?id=11398

AILA encouraging members to write congress in support of the SKIL Bill:
http://www.programmersguild.org/loca...y_oct2006.html

9/30/2006 The Detroit News “Do visas hurt U.S. workers?”
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll...356/1011/BIZ02

Caltrans LCAs for H-1b workers:
http://www.programmersguild.org/docs...s_history.html

Caltrans Media Affairs
http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/paffairs/news/

IEEE-USA: “Reports, Studies Shatter Myth that H-1B Visa Holders
are Paid Same Wages as U.S. Citizens”
http://www.ieeeusa.org/communication...006/090606.asp


The above article link: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/10/prweb448167.htm

[qplearn]

Originally Posted by arnet

There is a pending bill Pascrelli Bill HR 4378 in congress. Not sure whether this bill really talks about any retrogression issues other than putting cap/reduction on H1B quota:
[/url]

Hard to believe IEEE would do something like this! A very large proportion of their members are immigrants.

[rbharol]

I think now they have realized that SKIL will pass. Good news for IV.
But I think this article is not impressive at all.
They have to substantiate the claims they are making here.

There already is a provision that H1B can't be under paid.

Yes, citizens should be prefered if they have exactly the same skill set and
performs equally well in the interview. Why would an employer not prefer a citizen,
when he knows he would have to spend appx 4000 dollars to sponsor H1B??

It is competetion. Anybody who fits better gets the job.
If employer is forced to hire a citizen even if he/she was a misfit, it would
be disaster for the businesses.

BTW, I have read somewhere that unemployement rate in the field of engineering
in USA is 1%, so what are they complaining about?

I am sure competeamerica and others will put forward their point of view too.

[qplearn]

Originally Posted by rbharol

There already is a provision that H1B can't be under paid.

Most of these so-called studies are bogus, and based on comparing apples to oranges. I have seen comparison of the salary of a new recruit to that of someone who has been working for 15+ yrs. Of course, they were working on the same position. That's how they claim that the H1B is underpaid.

When a US citizen fresh out of college is hired to replace a senior person (on the same position) with a lower salary, the scenario is similar, but none can claim that H-1B law is being misused

[rbharol]

Forgot to mention one thing...

Employer has to post the hard copy of H1B application at more than 1 conspicous places at the work place displaying the salary being paid to the H1B candidate(without mentioning the name of the beneficiary), so that the american citizen counterparts know what is being paid to H1Bs and if they are being underpaid and have chance to complain.

It has to be displayed for 10 working days before filing H1B.

This is strictly followed in my company.

[purgan]

Kim Berry is a nutjob....

with 4.6% unemployment- 5 % is considered full employment by economists- and even lower numbers in IT, whose displacement is he talking about?

[andy garcia]

Originally Posted by rbharol

Forgot to mention one thing...

Employer has to post the hard copy of H1B application at more than 1 conspicous places at the work place displaying the salary being paid to the H1B candidate(without mentioning the name of the beneficiary), so that the american citizen counterparts know what is being paid to H1Bs and if they are being underpaid and have chance to complain.

It has to be displayed for 10 working days before filing H1B.

This is strictly followed in my company.

I am pretty sure your company did this. My company also did it and followed the law.

The problem is with those small companies that do not do this. Those are the BAAAD APPLES that produce all this mess and feed all this articles.

[nb_des]

Originally Posted by andy garcia

I am pretty sure your company did this. My company also did it and followed the law.

The problem is with those small companies that do not do this. Those are the BAAAD APPLES that produce all this mess and feed all this articles.

This is exactly what my company does and I believe is the standard process in most companies. There could be isolated cases of abuse in small companies.

[qplearn]

Originally Posted by andy garcia

I am pretty sure your company did this. My company also did it and followed the law.

The problem is with those small companies that do not do this. Those are the BAAAD APPLES that produce all this mess and feed all this articles.

I don't think it is the bad apples that are feeding to these stories. Some people simply twist facts out of their own frustration to create these stories. How else do you explain the low unemployment rates?

[prince_waiting]

The only point Kim Berry is harping about all the time is that H1-Bs are paid less than the MARKET wages. There is a difference between the MINIMUM WAGE and the MARKET WAGE and everybody knows that except Kim Berry. All H1-Bs should be paid more than the MINIMUM wage as applicable to their profession and all the employers except for a few rotten ones follow this rule. MARKET wage can be substantially higher than the Labor Dept. set minimum wages.Most of the American workers and software professionals want to maintain an exclusive status so that they command more salaries even at the cost of American competitiveness.

Any future argument in favor of the H1-B program should include this point.

[xbohdpukc]

I am not really sure about the timing of this article. The bill was introduced almost a year ago and is pretty much dead by now. There are lots of introduced bills pending in the Congress, like one by Tancredo which will bring all immigration to a complete halt. It's just much ado about nothing.

[xbohdpukc]

Originally Posted by prince_waiting

The only point Kim Berry is harping about all the time is that H1-Bs are paid less than the MARKET wages. There is a difference between the MINIMUM WAGE and the MARKET WAGE and everybody knows that except Kim Berry. All H1-Bs should be paid more than the MINIMUM wage as applicable to their profession and all the employers except for a few rotten ones follow this rule. MARKET wage can be substantially higher than the Labor Dept. set minimum wages.Most of the American workers and software professionals want to maintain an exclusive status so that they command more salaries even at the cost of American competitiveness.

Any future argument in favor of the H1-B program should include this point.

There is no such thing as a minimum wage in the H1b statute. It refers to the prevailing wage though, which technically should be somewhat close to the wage median.

[dixie]

I think they have realized SKIL bill is imminent and are now trying to revive the dead bill and add it as an amendment to get their pound of restrictionist flesh ... they know very well that the pascrell bill has no chance whatsoever as a standalone. For that matter, I remember Tancredo intoduced the "elimination of mass immigration" act in 2003 to abolish the H1-B altogether ... and restrict EB green cards to 5000 !!! Dont be surprised if that is resurrected from the grave as well.

Originally Posted by xbohdpukc

I am not really sure about the timing of this article. The bill was introduced almost a year ago and is pretty much dead by now. There are lots of introduced bills pending in the Congress, like one by Tancredo which will bring all immigration to a complete halt. It's just much ado about nothing.

[cvt123]

H1b is underpaid by margin of atlease 20%. Employers know that these Non-GC guys are stuck and are ready to milk. USCIS doesn't even care to audit big companies. If a big company employer is raising your salary around the H1b extension, then it is due to the pressure from the attorney.

[qplearn]

Originally Posted by cvt123

H1b is underpaid by margin of atlease 20%. Employers know that these Non-GC guys are stuck and are ready to milk. USCIS doesn't even care to audit big companies. If a big company employer is raising your salary around the H1b extension, then it is due to the pressure from the attorney.

This is BS. When the H-1B is hired, one has to make sure that he/she is paid more than the prevailing wages, which BTW are government-produced numbers.