No work for India, but Indians can work in Jersey

MUMBAI: US State New Jersey''s legislative body, the Senate, has cleared the bill which will prevent outsourcing any work from the public sector enterprise to India.
But the Shirley K Turner bill has been amended by a Senate committee to say that besides US citizens, "persons authorised to work in US pursuant to federal law may be employed in the performance of services under these contracts".
This means that Indians on H-1B visas will be allowed to work on state projects, but Indian firms or even US firms will not be able to send work offshore to India.
Therefore, this work can be done onsite by Indians who have gone on valid work visas but cannot be sent to India.
It is unclear whether Indians on other visas like L-1A or L-1B will be allowed to work on the same projects.
As reported by ET earlier, the bill prevents state enterprises from outsourcing work specifically to India. The bill was cleared unanimously by the state senate on December 16. The bill has to be cleared by the state assembly now after which it will be sent to the state governor for approval and if he signs it, the bill will become law under the state rules.
According to analysts, governor James E McGreevey is unlikely to veto it as he is already facing a lot of flak on his one-year performance in the state.
Any legislation which appears pro-employment will be seen as politically correct and hence difficult to veto. A bill becomes law upon the Governor''s signature or after 45 days if no action is taken.
If vetoed, a bill may become law if the legislature overrides the veto by a 2/3 vote (27 in the Senate, 54 in the Assembly).
A law takes effect on the day specified in its text or, if unspecified, the July 4 following its passage, according to the legislative procedure in the state.
Interestingly, the bill already has support in the State Assembly because a similar bill was introduced by member Reed Gusciora earlier this year. Mr Gusciora''s bill, though similar, was much harsher than Senator Turner''s. Mr Gusciora''s bill planned that only US citizens and legal resident aliens in the US shall be employed in performance of services under any contract from state enterprises.
Originally, the Shirley K Turner bill also had the same restriction.
The Senate has now passed the bill in its amended form, a copy of which is now available with ET.
According to IT analysts, the direct impact of the bill on the Indian BPO industry is minimal. The bigger impact of the bill is its " intent" of US state'' governments using legislation to protect jobs which may affect the Indian BPO industry in the long run. This may see many state governments and eventually even the federal government going in for with protectionist legislations.
The National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) has been unable to lobby the New Jersey state legislature to prevent the passage of the bill.
According to observers the unemployment rate in US is rising. A number of US companies are looking at India to cut costs through outsourcing non-core operations.
Though Nasscom has been looking at hiring a lobbying body in US to handle this issue, it has not been successful so far.
The BPO industry in India depends on the US. These jobs are coming to India as it is much cheaper to them in India than anywhere else in the word.