Americans need jobs, but there’s a vast army of highly-educated Indians than needs jobs too, and at a given price point, the calibre of the Indians will be higher and it can be argued that by working on contract in the US, they are making a disproportionate contribution to the US economy, so allegations that IBM Corp is using low-paid computer programmers from India to replace higher-paid American workers in the Austin area in violation of federal immigration laws, made by a former contract programmer, probably do not stand up: according to the Assciated Press, Larry Richards has filed a formal complaint with the US Labor Department, and says it has told him it is investigating Tata Information Systems Ltd, the joint venture between J R Tata Sons & Co Pte Ltd and IBM World Trade and the employment services company responsible for hiring Indian programmers to come to work for IBM in the US; IBM says it is in full compliance with the laws concerning foreign workers on temporary work visas – We pay the prevailing wage, we pay the contractor, and the contractor pays the employees; it’s the same as we do with all contractors – we are always looking for the best price for the skills that we need; Tata’s Tata Consultancy Services and Hewlett-Packard Co have been sued by a California citizens group claiming Tata treated its Indian workers like indentured servants and violated state employment laws by its treatment.
