Wipro asks hundreds of US employees to proceed on leave

Forwarded by Venkat

Wipro Technologies Ltd. has asked hundreds of US employees to proceed on loss of pay leave. Last week Wipro lost two of their biggest BFSI customers, Lehman and Merill Lynch.
Wipro has had a ‘zero bench policy’ in the US since July 2008 and many more hundreds have been transferred back to their base location in India from the US.
The practice of asking people to apply for leave is one form of ‘benching’, where the company does not pay wages for periods during which the employee is not productive for the company.
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Next year there will be a big case against Wipro for payment of back wages and this will result in a big settlement worth many millions of dollars and a severe impact on US visa approvals for Wipro in future.
In 2007 Patni settled US back wages claims worth .4 million and you can google that up if you’re interested.