A discrimination lawsuit filed in California threatens to end the widespread--and despicable--practice of forcing us to train our foreign replacements.
Today, you'll be able to read many columns describing how Martin Luther King's words are echoed in the Occupy Wall Street's contemporary demands for equality and opportunity.
But this will be the only column in the country that argues by wielding the weapons in our 1960s Civil Rights Act, we can not only stop this corporate practice, we will also stop the outsourcing of our 'jobs of the future'.
The Long Beach 18 (this is my nickname for them) are alleging national orgin discrimination and age discrimination, along with wrongful termination. They are suing Amir Desai, an American and the former CIO of Molina, along with Molina, a healthcare company for Medicare and Medicaid recipients and Cognizant, a major IT temp staffing and outsourcing company.
While their story of being outsourced and fired has been replicated tens of thousands of times, what's unique in this case is that the Long Beach 18 fought back and other Molina employees in the IT department and HR are supporting their claims by being witnesses for the plaintiffs!
According to court papers, the firing occurred one day after the US government issued permits to Cognizant to fill 40 job openings on Molina's worksite :
"On January 14, 2010, one day after the Department of Labor approved COGNIZANT’S application for 40 H1-B workers, MOLINA and DESAI, fired approximately 40 competent and tax-paying programmers, managers and security analysts, who were either American citizens or green card holders, in order to make room for the 40 H1-B visa holders provided by COGNIZANT following its false certifications to the Department of Labor.
Most fired U.S. workers were earning a minimum of $75,000 per year with benefits and many earned over $100,000 per year with benefits.
MOLINA’S (former) Senior Vice-President of Human Resources, informed MOLINA about her concern that the mass job terminations of the “innocent Americans” could be illegal discrimination especially since there were jobs available for them, as well as, imminent future job openings at MOLINA with the integration of Unisys Corporation, a $100 million corporation MOLINA had purchased months before the mass termination."
According to Computerworld's "Fired IT workers file lawsuit claiming H-1B workers replaced them" and court papers, a hostile workplace had ensued for several years before the firing."
"The lawsuit says that non-Indian workers were kept from participating in critical decision making processes "for the purpose of putting them at a disadvantage to the employees of Indian descent."
It also charges that the IT management team only hired and promoted Indian nationals.
Some meetings that had long been conducted in English, would "on many occasions" be conducted in "the native language of Indian employees," the lawsuit contends.
In addition, Indian managers "actively discouraged U.S. workers from celebrating U.S. holidays and traditions, such as Christmas, the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving, by assigning mandatory work that, in order to be timely completely, required work during holidays traditionally celebrated in America."
Another article from Computerworld, "Outsourced and Fired, IT Workers Fight Back," interviews some of the IT professionals and witnesses for the plaintiffs and shows how Molina spent MORE on labor costs after firing the Americans.
In lawsuit filings, Molina said it compared the cost of imported labor to the cost of U.S. workers at the company and found that the average pay for U. S. workers was $50 per hour versus $72 per hour for the Indian contractors and $26 an hour for offshore workers, according to the lawsuit. Based on Onufrock's (the IT Budget Manager) analysis, the lawsuit claims that after the mass layoff last year, the IT department exceeded its annual budget by over $5.5 million three months into 2010.
According to court papers after Molina had fired the Americans it increased its labor costs, between 144% to 180%.
Paying more in labor costs is a common outcome of displacement because the outsourcing company must significantly increase it's body count in order to reach the productivity of the more skilled Americans they have fired.
Yes...it's a myth that companies save money by outsourcing.