Boston Herald August 24, 2000

Companies underpaid foreign workers, U.S. says
By L. Kim Tan

When U.S. firms hire foreign workers to help them beat a persistently tight labor market, they're supposed to pay them as much as they would Americans. But not every employer has followed the law, the Department of Labor said yesterday.

In its latest crackdown in Massachusetts of employers who violate the Immigration and Nationality Act's H-1B visa program, the department said it has ordered three companies to pay nearly $163,000 in back wages to 28 foreign, non-immigrant computer consultants and doctors, including one who was apparently shortchanged nearly $25,000.

STAT Medical Management Corp. of New Bedford has paid the doctor another $24,342. The other two employers have also paid up their foreign workers, who can only work in the U.S. temporarily. New Horizons Software Inc. of Lowell has paid 24 employees $127,717, and The Network Connection of Woburn has paid three workers $10,927 in unpaid wages.

Corey Surett, Massachusetts director for the agency's wage and hour division, said the H-1B program requires companies hiring foreign workers to pay the "locally prevailing wage rate" for the particular occu-ations involved so as not to adversely affect similarly employed Americans.