US firm accused of abusing H-1B visa

PTI, Washington: A Fortune 500 energy company in the US has been accused of replacing American employees with low-wage H-1B workers, including Indians. 
In a letter to US Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal asked the Justice Department to investigate allegations that ‘Eversource Energy’ abused foreign worker visa programmes. 
In another letter to the CEO of Eversource Energy, which is headquartered in Hartford, Connecticut, Blumenthal called for a full accounting of how and why the company decided to fire 200 American employees, and whether those employees were forced to train future foreign replacements and sign non-disparagement agreements. 
”Eversource seems to be just the latest example of American companies abusing nonimmigrant worker visa programs and harming American workers by outsourcing jobs,” Blumenthal said in the letter to Lynch. 
In his letter dated February 3, which was released to the press on Friday, the Senator said the use of foreign outsourcing firms has been the subject of major concern among a bipartisan group of lawmakers for some time, as has the disproportionate displacement of American IT workers by H-1B and other nonimmigrant worker visa holders generally. 
According to Computer World, the IT firms—Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services—that Eversource uses for outsourcing are major beneficiaries of the H-1B visa. 
In 2014, Eversource had fired 200 American information technology workers in Connecticut and Massachusetts in order to replace them with similarly skilled, lower-paid nonimmigrant worker visa holders. 

US firm accused of abusing H-1B visa

PTI, Washington: A Fortune 500 energy company in the US has been accused of replacing American employees with low-wage H-1B workers, including Indians. In a letter to US Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal asked the Justice Department to investigate allegations that Eversource Energy abused foreign worker visa programmes. In another letter to the CEO of Eversource Energy, which is headquartered in Hartford, Connecticut, Blumenthal called for a full accounting of how and why the company decided to fire 200 American employees, and whether those employees were forced to train future foreign replacements and sign non-disparagement agreements. Eversource seems to be just the latest example of American companies abusing nonimmigrant worker visa programs and harming American workers by outsourcing jobs, Blumenthal said in the letter to Lynch. In his letter dated February 3, which was released to the press on Friday, the Senator said the use of foreign outsourcing firms has been the subject of major concern among a bipartisan group of lawmakers for some time, as has the disproportionate displacement of American IT workers by H-1B and other nonimmigrant worker visa holders generally. According to Computer World, the IT firmsInfosys and Tata Consultancy Servicesthat Eversource uses for outsourcing are major beneficiaries of the H-1B visa. In 2014, Eversource had fired 200 American information technology workers in Connecticut and Massachusetts in order to replace them with similarly skilled, lower-paid nonimmigrant worker visa holders.