US opens probe against TCS, Infosys for H1-B visa violation

The US government has opened an investigation against two of the biggest Indian outsourcing companies for possible violations of H1-B visa rules, according to a media report. The Department of Labour has opened the investigation against Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys for “possible violations of rules for visas for foreign technology workers under contracts they held with an electric utility Southern California Edison,” the New York Times said. The power company had recently laid off more than 500 technology workers amid claims that many of those laid off were made to train their replacements who were immigrants on the temporary work visas brought in by the Indian firms Senators Richard Durbin of Illinois and Jeff Sessions of Alabama announced the investigation after they were notified by the department, the report said. The move by the Labour Department comes days after the NYT had reported that hundreds of employees at entertainment giant Walt Disney were laid off and replaced with Indians holding H1-B visas. About 250 Disney employees were told in late October last year that they would be laid off and many of their jobs were transferred to immigrants on H1-B visas brought in by an outsourcing firm based in India, the report had said. It had also cited the layoffs at the Southern California Edison power utility, saying that the layoffs are “raising new questions about how businesses and outsourcing companies are using the temporary visas, known as H-1B, to place immigrants in technology jobs in the United States.” TCS stock price On June 12, 2015, at 13:55 hrs Tata Consultancy Services was quoting at Rs 2523.70, down Rs 47.3, or 1.84 percent. The 52-week high of the share was Rs 2834.00 and the 52-week low was Rs 2140.40. The company’s trailing 12-month (TTM) EPS was at Rs 98.31 per share as per the quarter ended March 2015. The stock’s price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio was 25.67. The latest book value of the company is Rs 231.87 per share. At current value, the price-to-book value of the company is 10.88.

[“source – moneycontrol.com”]