Silicon Valley's 'Body Shop' Secret:Highly Educated Foreign Workers Treated Like Indentured Servants
Source: NBC Bay Area
A year-long investigation by NBC Bay Area’s Investigative Unit and The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) raises questions about a well-known visa program setup to recruit foreign workers to the US: Is it indentured servitude in the high tech age? Or is it a necessary business model to compete in a quickly changing high tech economy?
NBC Bay Area and CIR’s team discovered an organized system that supplies cheap labor made up of highly-educated and highly-skilled foreign workers who come to the US via H-1B visas. Consulting firms recruit and then subcontract out skilled foreigners to major tech firms throughout the country and many in Silicon Valley.
... While many of the consulting companies that use H-1B visas appear to play by the rules, NBC Bay Area and CIR found numerous examples of other companies taking advantage of foreign workers and breaking federal law in the process. “’Indentured servants’ is a pretty accurate term because in many cases that’s exactly what’s going on,” said Phillip Griego of San Jose’s Phillip J. Griego and Associates. Over the years, Griego and his law partner, Robert Nuddleman have represented several H-1B workers in lawsuits against body shops.
... A guesthouse is a small apartment or home where as many as eight to ten workers stay at once. A dozen different interviews confirmed that the guesthouses are commonly used by body shops. One worker from India described how the body shops explained the guesthouse when he arrived: “We are placing you in the guesthouse. Until you get the job you have to stay in the guesthouse, you should not go out, even for a walk,” the worker said.
Read more: http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Silicon-Valleys-Body-Shop-Secret-280567322.html
Job brokers steal wages and entrap Indian tech workers in US
Source: The Guardian
Labor brokers providing Indian high-tech workers to American companies have hijacked a professional visa program, creating an underground system of financial bondage by stealing wages and benefits, even suing workers who quit.
About 840,000 people from around the world work in the United States on temporary visas, intended to help companies seek uniquely talented employees for specific jobs. In the tech realm, labor brokers often sponsor the visas, then contract out the workers to technology companies or government agencies to build databases, test software and complete other technical projects.
For decades, critics have sounded alarms about immigrant tech workers being treated as indentured servants by the worst of these staffing firms, known as “body shops.” In a yearlong investigation, The Center for Investigative Reporting has documented why this exploitation persists – through humiliation, intimidation and legal threats. Judgments against Indian workers sued for quitting their US jobs can exceed $50,000.
One worker called it an “ecosystem of fear”.
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/oct/28/-sp-jobs-brokers-entrap-indian-tech-workers
= new reply since forum marked as read
A LOT of young Indian men would get off the light rail at our stop and make a beeline for the complex. And in the morning, most of them got off at Cisco (which has its own stop!)
So management is apparently cool with that but sent me packing for having an Autistic meltdown while doing laundry. 
on the cheap, i.e., H1-B's. Just outrageous, really. 
who are willing to work as indentured servants.
Last edited Tue Oct 28, 2014, 05:03 PM - Edit history (1)
“ecosystem of fear”, is spot on. It's white collar slavery which is why I'm a contractor now instead of an employee. Salaried work is bullshit. It's based on a 40 hr. work week but you always work more than that, and at this point, the whole "you can have an equal amount of time off that you've worked over 40" is completely gone. It's not mentioned anymore. Heaven forbid you can't stay up till 12 one evening, else start looking over your shoulder for a new job.
tech country around Microsoft. In the game industry. I'm having difficulty deciphering the act but in it's essence does it say hourly paid employee's are not offered overtime pay? Further all exemptions in section B does not apply to the specifics in section C?
Just from it's initial reading it sure doesn't sound like an "Eight-Hour-Day Restoration and Workplace Flexibility Act". Sounds more like "This is how you rip off your Employee's Act".
I've been in the computer industry entertainment area working on games and video's for over 15 years and they purport flexibility in the workplace and you salary is based off a 40 hour week, but there's this thing called a "crunch period" where everyone puts in extra hours until a perceived deadline is met. Perceived because the deadline seems to miraculously continue to push out.
Before there was a standard "take 2 weeks off because of the crunch" but the crunch can sometimes run 75% of the length of the project. 2 weeks is nothing compared to what you put in and definitely no overtime pay. Your treated with parties and some dinners with the company.
But mostly, if you complained or said anything negative about the situation you were canned.
Now, they just lay you off at the end of a project, much like the film industry. But you don't get paid like the film industry.
It's one of the places that definitely, definitely needs a union. But that will never happen. The age discrimination is blatant also. Go into any game studio and you'll see nothing but kids. Anyone with any grey is in management or owns the company.
Sorry, I'll get off my soap box now. Thanks for the time. 
I'm at the point right now (fortunately I hope) where it's like I'm having to create work. I've joined up with a few guys and we're working on an indie project, and I think if I needed to, I could create a website with training for a fee. Outside of that I'm staring @ a completely different line of work. Last place I worked at made it known that they're lean and mean for producers because they've outsourced as much of the talent to keep prices low.
"And the high tech companies don't give a damn." Preaching to the choir! It's the bottom line always, I've been in management.
