Help Wanted: H-1B Visa Required

Date: Monday, October 16, 2006 6:40 PM

<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 1570 -- 10/16/2006 >>>>>

I'll take Goverdhana at his word that he didn't realize that
posting an ad specifically looking for H-1B visa holders was
discriminatory. Am I being naove? What do you think?

Answer: Goverdhana is just one example of someone at a bodyshop who runs
these discriminatory job ads. Sometimes it's not just bodyshops either --
this newsletter has noted many instances where US owned companies have run
ads that are coded to weed out U.S. citizens or anyone over the age of 30.
The author of this article should have asked some of these companies how
many of their engineers and/or programmers are U.S. citizens and how many
are foreign nationals. Yes, naive would be one way to put it, but a better
term might be that Chabrow is being willfully negligent.

When called on their blatant acts of discrimination based on nationality,
race, and caste, these bodyshops usually pull their ads, but they don't
change their racist and caste based hiring patterns.

Comments can be posted at the end of the article.

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http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2006/10/help_wanted_h1b.html

Help Wanted: H-1B Visa Required

By Eric Chabrow
Oct 6, 2006 at 03:29 PM ET

Was it chutzpah or ignorance behind an ad posted on Dice specifically
seeking H-1B visa holders to fill IT jobs in metropolitan Atlanta?

Scan the job listings on Dice and other employment sites, and it's not
uncommon to see ads that seek H-1B visa holders. Some aren't too subtle;
they'll specifically ask for H-1B visa holders or wannabes to apply, but at
least they list a job title and required skills.

And there are plenty of them. Today I used the keyword H-1B, and the
results included postings from a myriad of IT services firm, such as Comsys
with the heading "SAP MM SD Functional - ** H1B or Green card seekers
please respond" and Focus Technologies, which sought a "JAVA/J2EE Developer
with H1B sponsorship."

But none of the job listings were as blatant as one posted on Sept. 29 by
Expert Solutions, which touts itself as one of the fastest growing IT
consulting and services firms in Atlanta. The Expert Solutions ad--which
has been removed--states under job title: "Need H1-b (sic) candidates" and
under skills: "Looking for H1-b candidates with/without projects." Strange
title and skills, don't you think?

I called Expert Solutions owner Raghu Goverdhana and asked him why he ran
such an ad. He said his firm had clients that had short-term assignments
that weren't attracting green-card holders or American citizens, so he saw
it as a way to reach out to H-1B visa holders who might be looking for new
assignments. Goverdhana said he removed the ad because the jobs were
filled. The jobs, by the way, were for quality assurance testers in telecom
and retail.

Later, in an e-mail exchange, Goverdhana wrote that it was wrong to seek
qualified candidates by focusing solely on H-1B visa holders. "We are
extremely sorry for making wrong impression with our advertisement," he
wrote. "I am assuring you it will not be repeated again."

In our conversation, Goverdhana said he didn't mean to hurt anyone. In my
e-mail, I asked him to explain. "We got an e-mail in response to that ad
saying, 'Your advertisement is discriminatory.' That's is the reason I said
we did not mean to hurt anyone."

The e-mail came from Roy Lawson, a member of the Programmers Guild, a
professional society that's been highly critical of the H-1B visa program.
"Your advertisement is discriminatory," wrote Lawson, who sent a copy to
me. "You specifically seek to hire based upon nationality. If you don't
remove it, I will sue your company and file a complaint."

No suit needed. The ad is no longer posted.

Was the decision to remove the ad based on a legal threat, or a sincere
recognition that he made a mistake? I'll take Goverdhana at his word that
he didn't realize that posting an ad specifically looking for H-1B visa
holders was discriminatory. Am I being naove? What do you think?

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