New Delhi: After some American lawmakers of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Immigration accused Indian tech firms of abusing the H1-B visa programme to displace skilled American workers, Commerce Minister Kamal Nath says he will raise US allegations at the Global Trade talks in Brussels this week.
Kamal Nath said, "The temporary movement of skilled professionals is an essential component of the global services economy. Blocking it will have an adverse impact on its growth."
The US lawmakers have send notices to several Indian companies including Infosys, Wipro and Tata Consultancy Services asking them to disclose details about their workforce and demanding information on how they're using the H1-B visas.
"As we move closer to the debate on an immigration bill, I continue to hear how people want to increase the number of H-1B visas that are available to companies. Considering the high amount of fraud and abuse in the visa programme, we need to take a good, hard look at the employers who are using H-1B visas and how they are using them," Republican Senator Charles Grassley was quoted by news agency PTI as saying in a statement.
"Supporters claim the goal of the H-1B programme is to help the American economy by allowing companies to hire needed foreign workers. The reality is that too many H-1B visas are being used to facilitate the outsourcing of American jobs to other countries," Democratic Senator Richard Durbin was quoted by PTI as saying.
Some American firms in California have also been asked to respond, but other US lawmakers believe the programme has been beneficial to US industry.
Companies like Microsoft want the number of H1-B visas increased from 65,000 to 115,000.
The senators also sent letters to Patni Computer Systems, I-Flex Solutions Inc., Satyam Computer, Larsen & Toubro Infotech Ltd., Tech Mahindra Americas Inc. and Mphasis Corp.
Information that is being asked of the companies are on the number of visas they hold, wages, efforts to recruit qualified American workers, outsourcing of jobs to other countries and whether any US workers have had their responsibilities outsourced.
(With inputs from PTI)
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