Fremont Tech Company Paid Workers $1.21 An Hour: U.S. Dept. of Labor

[arcane1]

A Bay Area tech company has been slapped with a fine and ordered to pay thousands of dollars in back wages after a United States Department of Labor investigation revealed the company paid workers $1.21 an hour.

The Labor Department said about eight employees of Fremont-based Electronics For Imaging were flown in from India and worked 120-hour weeks to help with the installation of computers at the company's headquarters. The employees were paid their regular hourly wage in Indian rupees, which translated to $1.21.

EFI, which posted third-quarter revenue of nearly $200 million, released the following statement on Thursday: "During this process we unintentionally overlooked laws that require even foreign employees to be paid based on local US standards."

-snip-

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Fremont-Tech-Company-Paid-Workers-121-An-Hour-US-Dept-of-Labor-280148082.html


"Unintentionally" I'm sure.

[pnwmom]

1. Under what kind of visa were they allowed to work? Did they have some of those

scarce H1b visas that the tech companies are always insisting they need more of?

All of these companies should be investigated. I don't believe this is the only bad apple.

And it is NOT adequate to only compensate them for back pay based on minimum wage. Skilled workers like this would be making a lot more than minimum wage, and their visas would require market level pay.

[Recursion]

9. It was probably an L-1B visa

That would have allowed EFI to hire them at an India location and transfer them to the US. They are exempt from the H1-B "prevailing wage" law in that case (though they are supposed to pay in dollars at least US minimum wage, which they didn't here), but they have to have employed them in India for a period of time beforehand.

The H1-B process requires the visa adjudicator to look at the employment contract and compare it to the Department of Labor's posted prevailing wage tables; the L-1B visa does not.

[pnwmom]

10. Thanks, Recursion. n/t

[Recursion]

12. Also, L-1's at least in broad strokes aren't supposed to be doing client work

The idea behind them is that a foreign company can move support staff back and forth between (say) China and the US based on staffing needs. The point of them is not to move the people who are doing work for clients between countries.

[gratuitous]

2. "We unintentionally overlooked laws"

And, darn the luck! Wouldn't you just know that it worked to Electronics For Imaging's advantage to the tune of more than seven dollars an hour, every hour, for every worker? And EFI made more than $12 for every hour worked beyond 40 per week!

Bartcop's first rule of errors: When somebody makes a mistake that puts more money in his pocket, look for him to keep making that mistake again and again until he's stopped.

I hope the California AG throws the book at these crooks.

[arcane1]

3. I thought of Bartcop too when I read this.

[fadedrose]

4. There's no advantage to bringing over foreign workers

if they HAVE TO BE PAID the same as Americans....(plus plane fare?)...

[arcane1]

8. Same goes for sending chicken across the Pacific to be "processed" then shipped back home

The places they find to cut corners are terrifying.

[brer cat]

5. Unbelievable.

120-hour workweeks, unintentionally paid only 1.21/hour... and they were "hit" with a 3,500 fine. I am sure they will remember that slap for a long time.

[PowerToThePeople]

6. Bay area? More lke $50/hour for skilled tech worker.

Eom

[progressoid]

7. Fuck them.

They knew exactly what they were doing.

[daredtowork]

11. The Bay Area is a pit of degree/resume/visa mills

While people are imported to live like slaves in the houses of the companies that take advantage of these various systems, American workers get scammed by being deprived of jobs that were cordoned off by too-specific job descriptions and routed to these illicit factories.