.entrypoint

I had heard about this news before but couldn’t find any sources online to confirm it. So here it is.

Faced with imminent recession in the United States, Indian IT services companies with major exposure to the North American markets are likely to cut the onsite allowances of employees deployed at clients’ offices abroad by 25 to 30 per cent from April 1, 2008.

Not surprisingly, the companies mentioned here are TCS, Infosys and Wipro.

Infosys pays a per diem of $45 (around Rs 1,780) currently to its onsite employees. Now, there is a proposal to reduce it to $35 per day (around Rs 1,380) — a Rs 400 cut per day — according to sources.

…

Wipro, on the other hand, is hiring more local talent at client locations to reduce deployment of staff from India for onsite assignments.

Recently Wipro Chairman Azim Premji had said: “If we hire people locally, it will displace people we send from here on H1B visas. So net-net, it will not mean an extra cost to us.” If this happens, there will be fewer plum jobs for the boys in India.

TCS pays Euro 1,900 per month to each onsite employee in Europe. “We have been told that the per diem rate for the US is being revised. But the per diem for onsite employees in Europe will not change,” a TCS employee said on condition of anonymity.

Obviously, this is not good for the employee morale. But does anybody even care ?

Freep.com reports that Indians are the fastest growing illegal immigrants in the Unites States of America. The news, if true, is astounding. The website doesn’t site any sources or links to the actual study, but just says

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security estimates that there are 270,000 unauthorized Indian natives in the United States — a jump of 125% since 2000 and the largest percentage increase from any nation with more than 100,000 illegal immigrants in the United States.

Another national immigration expert, Jeffrey Passel of the Pew Hispanic Center, estimated that the number of illegal Indians is even higher, at 400,000 people.

Another interesting point in the article is

Indians are among the most affluent ethnic groups in the United States, with a median household income that is 62% higher than the figure for all U.S. households.

Read the complete article here. Have a look at the comments too.

Patni was always known for its low salaries and bad HR practices. Now they added another feather to their colorful cap with this.

Goel’s base salary was $23,310, about half the $44,000 that Patni had said it would pay on the visa application…

Last year, Patni paid $2.4 million to 607 H-1B visa workers after a Labor Dept. investigation uncovered systematic underpayment of wages.

Well done Patni.