Over at The American Interest they point out why American workers being replaced by foreign workers on H-1B visas may be more widespread than meets the eye:
Just in time for a primary season that’s highly-charged over the issue of immigration, the H1-B visa is back in the news for facilitating layoffs of American workers. The visa allows companies to bring over tech workers on a visa that gives them no path to citizenship status and ties their presence in the U.S. to their job. This makes the H1-B workers cheaper and more pliable than U.S. workers; furthermore, H1-B workers in the U.S. are often used to pave the way to outright offshoring. We’ve covered H1-B layoffs before, especially before the saga of workers laid off at Disney. But it turns out that due to a legalism present in many contracts, there may be far more affected workers who are not speaking out.
Basically, the reason is non-disparagement clauses in employment contracts. I can’t help but wonder if these clauses aren’t more scare tactics than practical tool. I wonder just how enforceable they actually are. When employers want non-disparagement clauses to stick, they need to add a little sugar and that’s only practical with respect to top management.
However, that’s just one more reason that I look at H-1B visas with a jaundiced eye and have proposed a reasonably simple reform that should be acceptable to everybody except, of course, companies who are bringing in H-1B visa workers expressly for the purpose of lowering wages which is already against the law.
Anybody who supports the free-trade arguments, should support the H1B visa program, and they should support it unrestricted. Otherwise, these goods would be produced out-of-country, but if they would be produced in-country, the country would get the secondary work. In fact, the US would benefit if everything were done by imported workers.
This would lower the cost for goods and services, and there would still be jobs for the few Americans that do the work that could not be insourced.
The Disney situation was more obvious to the extent severed workers were training their replacements. I would suspect most companies would not be so obvious.
I’m not familiar with the non-disparagement clauses, but think (i) they would be redundant to the extent they address libel; (ii) they would be redundant to the extent that they operate as a confidential agreement as part of a settlement of potential litigation; and (iii) what’s left would probably not be practically enforceable (by analogy to anti-compete clauses).
I suspect the real issue though is that once you’ve lost a job, you don’t want to burn bridges or come across as a complainer to future employers.
However, that’s just one more reason that I look at H-1B visas with a jaundiced eye and have proposed a reasonably simple reform that should be acceptable to everybody except, of course, companies who are bringing in H-1B visa workers expressly for the purpose of lowering wages which is already against the law.
It’s only REALLY against the law if the government prosecutes. And that doesn’t happen unless the employer has fallen out of favor with the government. So basically, it isn’t against the law.
And let’s not forget that Rubio is a champion of at least tripling the H1-B visa program, so as to make certain wages go down and more Americans lose jobs. Try mentioning that on any “conservative” site, though, and you get shouted down as a communist. Oppose it on a “liberal” site and you get called a racist. Never mind that it’s true.
I suspect the real issue though is that once you’ve lost a job, you don’t want to burn bridges or come across as a complainer to future employers.
DING! DING! DING! DING! We have a winner! Give that man a prize!
Not that it really makes any difference in IT. Lose your job as an American, and you aren’t getting another one in the field. They don’t want Americans anymore, because even in the Obama low-wage, low-employment, temporary contract environment, Americans just aren’t cheap enough or complacent enough.
But as TB likes to point out, most people don’t realize it works like this until it happens to them or someone very close to them.