After outrage over a mass firing in January, Disney suddenly--and without explanation--canceled its plan to replace even more American tech workers with immigrants.
In January, Disney informed 250 technology employees that they must train their replacements: immigrants, mostly from India, brought in by a global outsourcing company under the H-1B visa program. Despite widespread pushback in the tech world, Disney announced another set of layoffs in May, this time impacting 35 employees.
Though the training for the immigrant substitutes had already begun, Disney has suddenly reversed course, recently informing employees that they would keep their positions. The NY Times reports:
In late May, about 35 technology employees at Disney/ABC Television in New York and Burbank, Calif., received jarring news. Managers told them that they would all be laid off, and that during their final weeks they would have to train immigrants brought in by an outsourcing company to do their jobs.
The training began, but after a few days it was suspended with no explanation. In New York, the immigrants suddenly stopped coming to the offices. Then on June 11, managers summoned the Disney employees with different news: Their layoffs had been canceled.
“We were read a precisely worded statement,” said one of the employees, who was relieved but reluctant to be named because he remains at the company. “We were told our jobs were continuing and we should consider it as if nothing had happened until further notice.”
Despite repeated attempts to get an explanation from Disney and the outsourcing company, Cognizant, the Times says both have remained mum on the sudden reversal, so "it remained unclear on Tuesday who had initiated the change of strategy at Disney/ABC or whether it was part of a larger change in direction."
The pushback on Disney's immigrant outsourcing has turned increasing scrutiny on the H-1B temporary visa program. Though the visas are supposed to be reserved for positions requiring specialized skills for which Americans aren't available, many, including Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, suspect that the program is being abused and American workers are suffering as a consequence:
The Labor Department said last week that it had opened an investigation into two outsourcing companies, Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys, for work they did for Southern California Edison, a power utility. It also referred complaints to the Justice Department for a separate inquiry. Senator Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida, has called for an investigation of the H-1B visa program.
