Southern California Edison layoffs get U.S. Senate attention
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), who heads the Senate's immigration subcommittee and has emerged as a strong critic of the H-1B visa, cited SCE's layoffs in a speech in the Senate on Thursday.
"Apparently, Southern California Edison -- a power company rooted in the United States of America... [and] a quasi-almost-government entity under the regulatory powers of the State [is] terminating the employment of people who have been with them for a number of years," said Sessions.
The utility, Southern California's largest, is cutting about 500 IT workers, 100 of them through voluntary departures and others through layoffs. The layoffs have been happening in phases since August. A group was due to be laid off today, and another group is scheduled to go on March 6. The company says the layoffs will be completed by the end of the March.
SCE "is transitioning those positions to foreign employees who have come in under the H-1B visa program for the sole purpose of taking a job. They are not coming under the immigration policy where they would move from green card into permanent residence and into citizenship. They come solely for a limited period of time to take a job, and they work for less pay too often," said Sessions.
The layoffs began after SCE began transitioning some of its IT work to two India-based IT services firms, Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services.
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), who heads the Senate's immigration subcommittee and has emerged as a strong critic of the H-1B visa, cited SCE's layoffs in a speech in the Senate on Thursday.
"Apparently, Southern California Edison -- a power company rooted in the United States of America... [and] a quasi-almost-government entity under the regulatory powers of the State [is] terminating the employment of people who have been with them for a number of years," said Sessions.
The utility, Southern California's largest, is cutting about 500 IT workers, 100 of them through voluntary departures and others through layoffs. The layoffs have been happening in phases since August. A group was due to be laid off today, and another group is scheduled to go on March 6. The company says the layoffs will be completed by the end of the March.
SCE "is transitioning those positions to foreign employees who have come in under the H-1B visa program for the sole purpose of taking a job. They are not coming under the immigration policy where they would move from green card into permanent residence and into citizenship. They come solely for a limited period of time to take a job, and they work for less pay too often," said Sessions.
The layoffs began after SCE began transitioning some of its IT work to two India-based IT services firms, Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services.