Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Facebook Settles with U.S. Gov over Improperly Reserving Jobs for Immigrants

wsj.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 146 posts

Re: Facebook Settles with U.S. Gov over Improperly Reserving Jobs for Immigrants

#11

Post by bryan0 »

boglurker wrote: post #6
jorblumesea wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For FB, the H1B is largely used for pretty smart people across the globe. Their talent bar is high and so are the salaries. It truly is bringing in the best and brightest from around the world. There's also the debate about how confusing/outdated the PERM process can be. For the WITCH companies, it's likely undercutting American talent. Which is why the lawsuit is so ridiculous, why not go after the real perpetrators…

I thought another reason H1Bs are preferred by tech companies is because it limits the opportunities that your high skilled employee have access to, as far as I'm aware it's harder and riskier to switch jobs without getting deported if you're on a H1B visa which means the employees will put up with worse treatment and worse wages compared to native colleagues, though I'm fuzzy on the specifics

I can't speak for FB, but in my experience, you don't seek H1B holders out. Instead you recruit the best talent, and if the person you want to hire requires an H1B, then you jump through the legal hoops necessary to bring them onboard.

Re: Facebook Settles with U.S. Gov over Improperly Reserving Jobs for Immigrants

#12

Post by AnimalMuppet »

bryan0 wrote: post #5

> Facebook will pay $4.75 million to the U.S. government and up to $9.5 million to eligible victims of the alleged discrimination what makes one an "eligible victim"?

Being a non-immigrant applying for a job at Facebook, and not getting it?

Re: Facebook Settles with U.S. Gov over Improperly Reserving Jobs for Immigrants

#13

Post by alxhill »

boglurker wrote: post #6
jorblumesea wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For FB, the H1B is largely used for pretty smart people across the globe. Their talent bar is high and so are the salaries. It truly is bringing in the best and brightest from around the world. There's also the debate about how confusing/outdated the PERM process can be. For the WITCH companies, it's likely undercutting American talent. Which is why the lawsuit is so ridiculous, why not go after the real perpetrators…

I thought another reason H1Bs are preferred by tech companies is because it limits the opportunities that your high skilled employee have access to, as far as I'm aware it's harder and riskier to switch jobs without getting deported if you're on a H1B visa which means the employees will put up with worse treatment and worse wages compared to native colleagues, though I'm fuzzy on the specifics

It's harder but very much possible to switch company on an H1B visa - my partner did this recently and while there's a bunch of legal work and waiting around, for tech companies it's all just part of the process.

Re: Facebook Settles with U.S. Gov over Improperly Reserving Jobs for Immigrants

#14

Post by avasylev »

boglurker wrote: post #6
jorblumesea wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For FB, the H1B is largely used for pretty smart people across the globe. Their talent bar is high and so are the salaries. It truly is bringing in the best and brightest from around the world. There's also the debate about how confusing/outdated the PERM process can be. For the WITCH companies, it's likely undercutting American talent. Which is why the lawsuit is so ridiculous, why not go after the real perpetrators…

I thought another reason H1Bs are preferred by tech companies is because it limits the opportunities that your high skilled employee have access to, as far as I'm aware it's harder and riskier to switch jobs without getting deported if you're on a H1B visa which means the employees will put up with worse treatment and worse wages compared to native colleagues, though I'm fuzzy on the specifics

that's only the case if company intentionally delays application process for green card, which usually takes 1.5 year (unless applicant is form the country that hit the per-country limit, like India). 1.5 year "guaranteed" retention is not that significant to deal with visas/GC. Companies that do intentionally delay the GC process, that's different story, they can stretch the application for many years and have leverage over H1B holder. But that's not FB.

Re: Facebook Settles with U.S. Gov over Improperly Reserving Jobs for Immigrants

#16

Post by Levitz »

causi wrote: post #8
kfprt wrote: post #2

>The tech industry broadly relies on H-1B visas to plug gaps in their technical workforce, Does America not have schools or would Facebook rather just underpay foreigners? 14$ million is peanuts compared to the scope of H1B fraud.

Facebook was doing the opposite. accused the social-media company of illegally reserving lucrative jobs for immigrant workers it was sponsoring for permanent residence instead of searching for and considering available U.S. workers.

I think everybody rightly assumes they reserved those spots precisely so they could underpay them.

Re: Facebook Settles with U.S. Gov over Improperly Reserving Jobs for Immigrants

#17

Post by saddlerustle »

boglurker wrote: post #6
jorblumesea wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For FB, the H1B is largely used for pretty smart people across the globe. Their talent bar is high and so are the salaries. It truly is bringing in the best and brightest from around the world. There's also the debate about how confusing/outdated the PERM process can be. For the WITCH companies, it's likely undercutting American talent. Which is why the lawsuit is so ridiculous, why not go after the real perpetrators…

I thought another reason H1Bs are preferred by tech companies is because it limits the opportunities that your high skilled employee have access to, as far as I'm aware it's harder and riskier to switch jobs without getting deported if you're on a H1B visa which means the employees will put up with worse treatment and worse wages compared to native colleagues, though I'm fuzzy on the specifics

H1B visas aren't "preferred", it's the only visa available for skilled immigration for most people.

Re: Facebook Settles with U.S. Gov over Improperly Reserving Jobs for Immigrants

#18

Post by aaomidi »

barelysapient wrote: post #15

Is it just me, or are American settlements against tech companies always laughably small compared to Europe and elsewhere?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28755257

People generally think these companies get punished too much in other threads.

Re: Facebook Settles with U.S. Gov over Improperly Reserving Jobs for Immigrants

#19

Post by barelysapient »

aaomidi wrote: post #18
barelysapient wrote: post #15

Is it just me, or are American settlements against tech companies always laughably small compared to Europe and elsewhere?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28755257 People generally think these companies get punished too much in other threads.

Jury awards are clearly their own wild wild west that deserves a thread. I'm wondering specifically about settlements with a government enforcement agency.

Re: Facebook Settles with U.S. Gov over Improperly Reserving Jobs for Immigrants

#20

Post by jmwilson »

An earlier article has a bit more description of the complaint: https://archive.md/67DiB

For those curious about how this works, the company has to show it tried and couldn't hire a US resident, but they don't have to try very hard... so the company posts a brief job opening in a local newspaper. When nobody responds, because it's the newspaper, tada! Proof there was no American-based talent capable of filling the job.

Post reply on HN