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Comment by jalopy | Hacker News Reader

To me, this doesn't look as horrible as the article makes it out to be.

I get a ~90 day notice that my job is ending, during which time I continue to work the same hours and have time to apply to other positions inside and outside of Disney.

After that, if I don't have a job w/in Disney and separation occurs I get 10% of my annual salary. That's 5.2 weeks severance.

Am I missing something in the numbers?

There is certainly an emotional aspect to "training your replacements", but it does seem like Disney is trying to do right by employees and shareholders at the same time. Better balancing act than I've seen at most places.

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> To me, this doesn't look as horrible as the article makes it out to be. > Am I missing something in the numbers?

Whether it's horrible or not, the point of the article is that Disney (via it's subcontractor) is violating the H1B program by using it to directly replace workers at a lower wage.

There was a bit of hyperbole in the beginning of the article about H1B workers, but at the bottom the author adds this:

"But Disney directly employs fewer than 10 H-1B workers, executives said, and has not been prominent in visa lobbying."

That's referencing the H1Bs that Disney employs directly. This article involves hiring a company to import replacement workers on Disney's behalf. They don't need to be prominent in Visa lobbying since they can just hire companies who are, and possibly skirt legal responsibility for their misuse of the H1B program in the process. It's a win for the corporation and a loss for their American workers.

Interesting, I hadn't caught that when I read through it the first time:

"Many American companies use H-1B visas to bring in small numbers of foreigners for openings demanding specialized skills, according to official reports. But for years most top recipients of the visas have been outsourcing or consulting firms based in India, or their American subsidiaries, which import workers for large contracts to take over entire in-house technology units — and to cut costs. The immigrants are employees of the outsourcing companies."

They don't really say how many H1B workers are employed through Disney's contractors, but it's definitely implied

They're still 100% responsible for what happened here, and the H1-Bs that were brought in for them.

Dang, lying and more lying.

Lying to US govt about abusing H!B visa. And lying to news outlet. What do they think people are? Stupid?

The law says nothing about lower or higher wages, the law is specific about "prevailing" wages. If someone gets paid a $100,000 salary, but the prevailing wage is $75,000, paying $70,000 puts company within the realm of prevailing.

The formula does not incorporate experience, education or cost of living.

The take away I got from the article is that these people are being replaced by workers here on H1-B visas. Which are suppose to be used only for positions that you can not find any American workers for.

So Disney instead hires a contractor service that employees H1-B people to replace the people being laid off at a lower rate.

While the originals were still employed at Disney, they weren't available to be hired at Disney. So Disney was forced to hire H1Bs, as there were no Americans to be found for those seats; they were already in those seats.

That statement makes absolutely no sense.

Exactly. Neither does what happened to those people.

The missing part here is that they may not be able to find an equivalent job in the same area where they already live.

How long will 10% of your annual salary keep you and your family in ramen noodles if you cannot find a job in three months?

Longer than 0%. If I were in these folks shoes, I'd probably take the deal. It's not like refusing is going to keep your replacement from being changed.

That said, this seems a clear violation of the spirit of H1B, if not the letter of the law. We need better enforcement of this.

You're only looking at this from the single instance of a single individual's point of view with a single company. If more companies get away with this, the result will be that there will BE no "other positions" to apply to, because every company will be abusing this method. The fear is that eventually the ~90 day notice may become notice of the end of your chosen career.

If someone else is coming in to do your same job, then "to do right" means that you get to keep your job. Disney was profitable when these 250 workers worked there. Firing them to save a few bucks by replacing them with low-paid foreign workers is wrong. There's no "do right" in that equation.

There is no way in hell you could possibly say they are trying to do right by employees. No way in hell. If they were, they wouldn't be laying them all off simply to save a buck.

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