Suwanee consulting firm to pay foreign workers $1 million in back wages

By David Markiewicz

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A Suwanee-based consulting firm will pay nearly $1 million in back wages and interest to 135 temporary foreign employees who worked under a federal visa program, according to an agreement with the U.S. Department of Labor.

The Labor Department said Smartsoft International Inc., which admitted no wrongdoing, violated the rules of the H-1B program, which allows companies to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations for a maximum of six years. A Labor Department spokesman said the positions were skilled, professional jobs. He did not know the period of the workers' employment.

An investigation by the Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division found that some workers weren't paid at the beginning of their employment. It also found that some were paid as part-timers even though they were hired under a full-time agreement. And some were paid less than the prevailing wage in the geographic areas where they worked.

"Workers deserve to receive the full wages for which they have worked so hard," Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis said. "This is not just a matter of decency and common sense, it's the law."

Smartsoft said in a statement that it feels it would have won a legal battle but that because of the cost of such a challenge the company decided to settle. The firm said the government found no systemic violation of the law and no willful wrongdoing, and that the government, not its employees, initiated the investigation.

Smartsoft attributed the dispute to "differing interpretations of highly complex laws."

According to its website, Smartsoft was established in 1997 and has more than 650 employees worldwide.