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Labor Department fines Silicon Valley firms in H-1 visa worker violations

November 10, 2015

Scopus Consulting Group and Orian Engineers, two Sunnyvale, Calif.-based worker placement organizations owned by Kishore Kumar, failed to pay software engineers working on H-1B visas the local prevailing wage, the US Department of Labor reports. The two companies provide workers to Silicon Valley firms including eBay Inc., Apple Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc., according to the department.

After the parties filed consent findings, federal Administrative Law Judge Stephen R. Henley ordered the two businesses to pay 21 workers $84,000 in back wages and $103,000 in fines to the federal government. The department also barred both firms from participating in the H-1B program for one year.

The DOL’s Wage and Hour Division in San Francisco found Orian and Scopus Consulting violated the H-1B provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act by misrepresenting the prevailing wage level on the Labor Condition Applications required by the act. The employers also recruited experienced workers, most of whom have master’s degrees, and paid them as entry-level employees, according to the division.

The division also cited the companies for failing to post a notice in the workplace about their applications to bring in foreign workers using the H-1B visa program, which would allow US workers to learn about and apply for job openings.

“Some of the country's most cutting-edge, successful organizations benefit from underpaid H-1B workers,” said Susana Blanco, director for the Wage and Hour Division in San Francisco. “H-1B workers must be paid local prevailing wages. We will not allow companies to undercut local wages and hurt US workers and businesses who pay their workers fairly.”