CAUTION NEEDED IN CONFRONTING BIG CORPORATIONS

It has been 17 months since Mr. Palmer, 44, a software project manager for Infosys since August 2008 made a quiet complaint through internal channels at Infosys, the giant Indian outsourcing company he works for.  The basis of the complaint being the suspicion that company mangers were committing visa fraud.

Federal investigators are looking into allegations that workers from India were used for certain kinds of jobs here that were not authorized underneath their proxy visas, famous as B-1. They are also examining countless irregularities in a company’s employing practices and documents, sovereign officials said.  Other numerous irregularities are being examined in the company’s employing practices and documents.    Mr Palmer charged, in senate testimony and justice documents, that Infosys brought Indian workers on short-term caller B-1, visas instead of the more dear and time-consuming to obtain H-1B visas.

The lawsuit Mr. Palmer filed against Infosys in February 2011 prompted federal prosecutors in Plano, Tex., where the company has offices, to open a criminal investigation that is still expanding.

Infosys, a fast-growing global business that has carefully built a reputation for integrity, vigorously denies Mr. Palmer’s accusations and is fighting his lawsuit in federal court in Montgomery.  Ted Bockius, an Infosys spokesman, said, that fewer than 2 percent of the company’s workers in the United States at any time are on B-1 visitor visas.  “Any allegation or assertion that there is or was a corporate policy of evading the law in conjunction with the B-1 visa program is simply not accurate”.  Apparently, this was totally about distinction and not employing Americans for jobs in the U.S. due to higher income requirements.

What is more distressing is that Mr. Palmer has been harassed by superiors and co-workers, sidelined with no work assignment, shut out of the company’s computers, denied bonuses and hounded by death threats.  “They did the worst thing they could do to someone who is used to working 80 hours a week”.  “They sit me at home and cut me off from everything. My life is floating in Infosys purgatory.”

The difficulty Mr. Palmer faces is all the more compounded being a small minority of Americans employed by a huge $6.8 billion annual revenue company with about 15000 employees in the United States alone.  In an email he wrote, “The mental and earthy plea one takes on after floating an alarm is excruciating,” After what he has seen, he said, “It will be tough for me to advise anyone to blow a whistle.”

To someone used to working 80 hours a week, now “They lay me during home and cut me off from everything. My life is floating in Infosys purgatory.”

Mr. Palmer is experiencing psychological and mental harassment.  With no work and small communication from the company, his moods pitch erratically, he struggles with drinking and is taking remedy for anxiety and depression.

In another email Mr. Palmer wrote, “You’re around people each day, and afterwards all of a remarkable we are staring during 4 walls.”

Mr. Palmer, who now wonders if his whistle-blowing had any value it, is still on Infosys payroll, though with no work and very little communication.