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"I am concerned that Microsoft will be retaining foreign guest workers rather than similarly qualified American employees when it implements its layoff plan," Sen Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, said in a Jan. 22 letter.
Microsoft shocked investors on Thursday when it released quarterly results that missed Wall Street expectations, announced up to 5,000 layoffs and said it would no longer give forecasts for the rest of the fiscal year.
The company has been a champion of expanding the H-1B visa program, a temporary visa program that lets American companies and universities hire foreign workers in a category considered by the government to be a "specialty occupation".
Microsoft said late Friday that some of the people who lose their jobs would likely be non-Americans.
"We care about all our employees, so we are providing services and support to try to help every affected worker, whether they are US workers or foreign nationals working in this country on a visa," a Microsoft spokesperson said in an e-mail statement.
Microsoft employs thousands of workers through the visa program, according to Grassley, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee.
The letter asked Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer to provide a breakdown of the jobs to be eliminated, and how many of those are individuals with H-1B visas and how many are Americans. Grassley also wants to know what the breakdown will be when the layoffs are complete.
"Microsoft has a moral obligation to protect these American workers by putting them first during these difficult economic times," Grassley said in the letter, copies of which were provided by his office on Friday.
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If More H1b employers are sacked or technically qualified people are sacked from job it will be difficult for America to survive in the technology environment. America is land of Immigrants.
senator is correct. heck we in india are kicking our own citizens in bombay
good points deepa. but infosys is just like other indian service companies; displacing us workers with cheap labor. another glorified body shop albeit with good marketing and flat world mumbo jumbo. always hiring armies of freshers and putting seniors on 'sabbatical' to maintain margins.
Who are the foreigners in America?!America itself is a country of immigrants.
They are actually immigrants from the UK. period.
Microsoft should do what is best for the share holders. There should be no other criteria used for the lay offs
As a US Senator, it is his job to protect his citizens first and then think of other nationalities. I think what he is asking for is fair. If India wants her citizens to have proper employment, then more Indians need to turn entrepreneur and work hard to create Organizations in India itself like Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco etc. Not jokes like Satyam. There was a time when working for someone (popularly called "service") was not thought of as highly as being "in business". Now with all the big Companies and big salaries and perks of moving to the West, we naturally dont want to apply ourselves to the difficult task of building from scratch. We need more people like the team that bulit Infosys .
This clearly shows the same opportunistic politics of "gaining support of locals by recommending the first axe to fall on outsiders" as is being practiced by some of our great Indian leaders. SHAME ON THEM
India has jokes like satyam, while the more serious ones like Infosys and the Tatas find road blocks at evry stage, created by the government. The Senator is accountable to his people and is doing his work. Unless the people of this country throw out the present government and bring in a more responsible government, there is little hope for Indians in this country of ours.
Sack Obama first. An opportunity canbe created in the White House too!!!!!!!!
Microsoft is no more American comany .They have built empire on shoulders of employees from other countires. Those people have boiled their bloods to make it big . Also microsoft has made money from all over the world .That's why managmnet want foreigners to be there
all the people who worked towards making microsoft as big as it is now did it for their own bread and butter and not for the sake of the company. and to make microsoft a big company and at the end of the day the person who has the vision to set up the company after taking all the risks involved and make as big as it is today reserves the right to determine whom to keep and who to fire to keep the company functioning in the long run