iGATE Mastech (
NASDAQ IGTE) has agreed to pay $45,000.00 in a discrimination settlement involving the exclusion of workers who do not hold H-1B visas.
While this settlement is getting some press, iGATE Mastech's trading symbol is not included in the H-1B story(s) and an Internet search for "IGTE" does not inform investors of the violations of the anti-discrimination provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
The violations were so flagrant that investors should be wary of another possible equity meltdown like Enron or Bear Stearns from the Business Process Outsourcing sector.
The settlement stems from the Department’s finding that, between May 9, 2006, and June 4, 2006, iGate placed 30 job announcements for computer programmers
that expressly favored H-1B visa holders to the exclusion of U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, and other legal U.S. workers. Such preference constituted citizenship status discrimination and is prohibited by the Immigration and Nationality Act. http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2008/May/08_crt_369.html
A search of the 2007 H-1B LCA Database for "iGate" shows that applications for 5,262 H-1B migrant LCAs under various corporate headings. An examination of
Yahoo Finance shows that iGate currently has 7140 full time employees.
IGATE GLOBAL SOLUTIONS , AN IGATE COMPANY = 620
IGATE GLOBAL SOLUTIONS , AN IGATE CORP. = 20
iGate Global Solutions, an iGate Company = 260
iGate Mastech Inc, an iGate Company = 4262
iGate Mastech, Inc. = 100
The actual number of H-1Bs awarded to iGATE for 2007 was...
IGATE GLOBAL SOLUTIONS AN IGATE CO = 41
IGATE MASTECH INC AN IGATE COMPANY = 14
The Programmers Guild, a lobbying group for software developers, claims it has tracked as many as 5,000 such online ads from 1,000 companies. The iGate compliant was one of 300 the group has drafted, about 100 of which it has actually filed with the DoJ, said John Miano, a software consultant who founded the group and serves as its treasurer.
http://www.eetimes.com/news/semi/rss/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=207500461&cid=RSSfeed_eetimes_semiRSS
This is the first time I've seen the Programmer's Guild labeled a lobbying group, but it's very pathetic state of affairs if we have to form lobbying groups to have immigration and labor law enforced.
Anyway, a company that filed LCAs for over 5000 non-immigrants, is well represented legally, what other laws might iGATE, with an Enterprise value of 389.03M, be ignoring?
