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Immigration contractor trims wages

By Times Wires
Published December 2, 2007

Workers who help process millions of visa and citizenship applications for a federal immigration agency are getting pay reductions just as the agency is facing an enormous surge in those applications. The workers whose wage rate will be cut are contract employees in processing centers in Vermont and California that are part of Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency responsible for deciding visa applications and citizenship petitions. About 280 of approximately 1,000 contract workers in the two centers will receive lower wages after a new contractor, Stanley Inc., takes over on Monday. "If you're trying to get people motivated to deal with a huge backlog, the last thing you would do is slash pay," said Sen. Bernard Sanders, an independent from Vermont. Shawn Saucier, a spokesman for Citizenship and Immigration Service, said the dispute is between the contractor and the employees.

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Times wires

[Last modified December 2, 2007, 01:13:22]