Judge rules in favor of Sun in H-1B visa case

Date: Wednesday, February 26, 2003 12:47 PM

H-1B and JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

www.ZaZona.com

This story is far better than CNET's. Margaret Quan must have actually
read the court ruling instead of relying on Sun's PR team for
information.

http://www.siliconstrategies.com/story/OEG20030221S0048

Judge rules in favor of Sun in H-1B visa case

By Margaret Quan, EE Times
Feb 21, 2003 (1:08 PM)
URL: http://www.siliconstrategies.com/story/OEG20030221S0048

MANHASSET, N.Y. A Department of Labor administrative law judge in San
Francisco has ruled largely in favor of Sun Microsystems Inc., in a
case involving H-1B visas and a Sun employee who claimed he had been
laid off unjustly.

Guy Santiglia, a former Unix system administrator, filed a complaint
with the Labor Department in November 2001, charging that Sun replaced
U.S. workers with H-1B non-immigrant workers to perform the same jobs,
denied Santiglia access to documents related to the H-1B workers by not
posting them as required by law, and hired H-1B workers for jobs that
did not meet the requirements for "specialty occupations" specified in
the H-1B visa classification.

Judge Jennifer Gee, in a Feb. 19 ruling, denied most of Santiglia's
charges, including the fact that Sun did not have to attest that U.S.
workers would not be displaced by H-1Bs because it was not "H-1B
dependent." Sun was judged to not be in willful violation of the Labor
Condition Applications requirements.

H-1B dependent employers apply to those with at least 51 percent of its
full-time employees employed in the United States, and with H-1B
workers comprising at least 15 percent of those in the United States.

Judge Gee found that Sun had failed to properly post two copies of
Labor Condition Applications in conspicuous locations at the specific
work site where the H-1B workers would be working. But the company's
violation was neither willful nor substantial, she ruled.

The judge assessed no monetary penalties to Sun, but ordered Sun to
change its posting practices with regard to the LCA applications.

An employer must file a Labor Condition Application form with the Labor
Department's Employment and Training Administration to hire an H-1B
visa holder. The LCA includes information about H-1B's job title,
employer's name, area of intended employment, dates of intended
employment, prevailing wage, actual wage or a wage range for the
position, source of the employer's wage information and number of
positions requested by the LCA. An employer must post two copies of the
LCAs in at least two locations at a worksite where H-1Bs will be
working so that workers in the occupational classification at the place
of employment can easily see and read the posted notice.

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