Suit alleges India firm collected employees' (U.S.) tax refunds

[Newsjock]

A project manager, in the Bay Area, making $50k! No wonder corporate America wants all those visas!
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/13872991.htm

By Michele Chandler
Mercury News

A citizen of India working in California filed a class action lawsuit Tuesday against his India-based employer, alleging that the company collected tax refunds owed to its non-U.S. citizen workers.

Gopi Vedachalam, who transferred to the Bay Area in 2000 from Bangalore, contends he was instructed to sign over his federal and state tax refund checks to international consultancy firm Tata Consultancy Services. U.S. citizens of the company, however, were not asked to sign over their returns, his lawsuit alleges.

Vedachalam was assigned by Tata Consultancy to work as a project manager at Target in Hayward, where he made $50,000 a year. From 2000 to 2005, the refunds he signed over to Tata Consultancy totaled $25,000, according to the lawsuit filed in San Francisco's federal district court.

... If certified as a class action case, the suit would be one of the first filed against a company engaged in bringing non-U.S. citizens to the United States to work in American corporations, Tindall said. Vedachalam, 37, received an L-1 visa, which permits foreign companies to transfer workers to their U.S. subsidiaries, Tindall said. Vedachalam still works for Tata Consultancy; since 2003, he's been a project manager for 21st Century Insurance in southern California.

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[NYC]

1. What a strange thing.

He signed over his personal tax refund to his company. A new kind of theft, I guess.

[bleedingheart]

2. something smells fishy about the whole thing...

back in the ole Robber Baron days....mining bosses could be bribed to give jobs to people... men were so desparate for work that they would kick back part of their salary to the mining boss or a foreman...

I tend to believe this fellow may have been involved in this scheme and now regrets it...

Tata is a big Indian Consulting outfit ...more than likely some of their employees want to work in the states...and there is a certain "price" they must pay to do so....

[lovuian]

3. How is paying someone $50,000 cheaper than paying

an American it must be the kick backs their getting from the foreign workers... Hey corporations getting a wake up call these foreign workers know their rights ....

Its what I have been saying all along these corporations are going to get kicked in the teeth by these foreign workers...

Serves them right!!!
:rofl:

[Samurai_Writer]

4. $50,000 for a project manager in the Bay Area IS cheap

The cost of living there is outrageous, and even as a Technical Writer I've been offered jobs there for $90,000. Project Managers make probably 50% more than Technical Writers, normally.