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Reacting to former Infosys employee and whistleblower Jack Palmer’s statement that H-1B visa workers had “minimal skills and little business knowledge”, the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) called the allegation untrue in a statement on Friday.
The association highlighted the US Government’s recognition of the “innovation and competitiveness of H-1B workers in spurring thousands of businesses there and investments brought by IT services companies as vindication.
“We feel the allegations made are completely misplaced and rhetorical. Indian IT-ITeS employees going onsite are both educated and skilled and subjected to laws that govern that particular visa category,” said R. Chandrashekhar, President, NASSCOM.
The NASSCOM statement also cited US Labour Department statistics which that the sector, where unemployment stands at 3 per cent, required skills that were fulfilled by Indians in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) fields. It also mentioned that bilateral ties had led to discussions by both nations for the pursual of an India-US Totalisation Agreement.
Chandrashekhar added that the body would continue to work different stakeholders in the US and India to address the issue and ensure the delivery of the “best of technologies and technological advancements to the US” by Indian companies and its employees.
The US IT market, the largest in the world, is also the largest market for the Indian IT industry and accounts for 62 per cent of exports.
“I cannot emphasize enough that H1-B workers that are replacing US workers have minimal skills and little to no business knowledge. The idea of knowledge transfer is absurd, Americans are training these people how to do their job … this is just cold hard facts. As statistics can validate, most of these workers have only a bachelor’s degree – how is this specialised talent?” Walker is alleged to have told Senate Judiciary Committee members during a Congressional hearing on immigration earlier this week.
In October 2013, Infosys paid a $34 million settlement to the US Government after Palmer filed a lawsuit against the company’s visa practices.
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