Sun fights allegations of 'Indian bias'

Date: Thursday, March 20, 2003 1:00 PM

H-1B and JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ft/20030319/bs_ft/1045511819021

Sun fights allegations of 'Indian bias'

Tue Mar 18, 7:50 PM ET

By Scott Morrison in San Francisco

Sun Microsystems is having to fight a lawsuit alleging that the
computer systems company laid off 2,500 older US workers in order to
replace them with young, lower-paid, high-technology workers from
India.

The allegation strikes at the heart of an ongoing debate between US
technology groups and their high-tech employees over the federal
government's H-1B visa programme, which allows corporations to
temporarily import foreign workers.

The visa programme was designed to help US companies find workers with
hard-to-find skills but there is growing concern that they are taking
advantage of it to merely cut costs.

The lawsuit, for which class action status is being sought, argues that
Sun developed an "institutional bias" in favour of Indian workers and
cited comments by Vinod Khosla, a company founder, who appeared on a TV
programme stating that Indians are "favoured over almost anyone else".

The lawsuit alleges Sun was applying for new H-1B visas even as it was
moving to cut US workers. It also claims Sun imposed a policy of not
rehiring workers laid off as part of the job cuts.

The lawsuit also claims Sun discriminated based on race, national
origin and age. It seeks compensation for lost wages and unspecified
punitive damages.

Sun said on Tuesday it would not comment until it had a chance to
review the lawsuit.

Diane Carlini, a Sun spokeswoman, said the company has always followed
federal guidelines that strictly control the number of H-1B visas that
companies can obtain. She indicated that Sun had successfully defended
itself against similar allegations in the past.

James Caputo, the lawyer filing the case, argued that a "statistical
evaluation" would demonstrate Sun's bias against older US workers. He
claimed that Indian workers earned substantially less as a group
compared with their US counterparts.

Mr Caputo also charged that Sun's management believed Indian workers
were "more compliant" and "less willing to make waves".

Sun employed more than 43,000 workers at the height of the dotcom boom
in 2000. Slumping information technology demand forced the company to
slash 8,400 jobs in two rounds of cuts in 2001 and 2002, leaving it
with about 35,000 employees.

The company has never stated how many laid-off employees were H-1B visa
holders. Whether or not an employee held a visa was "not a criteria for
the reduction", said Ms Carlini.

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