Porous federal oversight has allowed labor brokers to financially exploit Indian tech workers with little fear of detection. And even those that are caught can continue to survive and thrive – including on taxpayers’ dime.
Jennifer Gollan
Reporter
Jennifer Gollan is an award-winning reporter. Her investigation When Abusers Keep Their Guns, which exposed how perpetrators often kill their intimate partners with guns they possess unlawfully, spurred sweeping provisions in federal law that greatly expanded the power of local and state police and prosecutors to crack down on abusers with illegal firearms. The project won a 2022 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award and has been nominated for a 2022 Emmy Award.
Gollan also has reported on topics ranging from oil companies that dodge accountability for workers’ deaths to shoddy tire manufacturing practices that kill motorists. Her series on rampant exploitation and abuse of caregivers in the burgeoning elder care-home industry, Caregivers and Takers, prompted a congressional hearing and a statewide enforcement sweep in California to recover workers’ wages. Another investigation – focused on how Navy shipbuilders received billions in public money even after their workers were killed or injured on the job – led to tightened federal oversight of contractors’ safety violations.
Gollan’s work has appeared in The New York Times, The Associated Press, The Guardian US and Politico Magazine, as well as on PBS NewsHour and Al Jazeera English’s “Fault Lines” program. Her honors include a national Emmy Award, a Hillman Prize for web journalism, two Sigma Delta Chi Awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, a National Headliner Award, a Gracie Award and two Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing awards. Gollan is based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Posted inTechsploitation, Worked Over
Case study: Saras America
The technology consulting company is among the few niche staffing firms that got into trouble for mistreating Indian workers – yet it continued to survive and thrive.
Posted inTechsploitation, Worked Over
Case study: Tata Consultancy Services
Former workers at this tech labor broker say the company tried to collect fees from them after they quit.
Posted inImmigration, Techsploitation, Worked Over
Job brokers steal wages, entrap Indian tech workers in US
Labor brokers providing Indian high-tech workers to American companies are gaming a professional visa program, creating a shadow world that can turn a worker’s dream of self-betterment into a financial nightmare.
Posted inU.S. Education
UC endowment has worst investment returns among largest US college funds
The University of California’s $11.2 billion endowment has produced the worst investment returns of any of the richest colleges in the country over the past decade, an analysis by The Center for Investigative Reporting shows. From the 2004 through 2013 fiscal years, the investment payout for the UC endowment ranked last among the 10 U.S. universities […]
Posted inMoney and Politics
California agencies gamble on pension bonds to cover debts – and lose
The city of Richmond issued a million pension obligation bond in 1999. Today, it owes more than million on the bond, plus about million in interest, and its pension fund remains roughly .5 million short.Ramin Rahimian/For The Center for Investigative Reporting Desperate to cover a $40 million shortfall in its pension fund for retired police […]
Posted inMoney and Politics
Federal judge’s rulings favored companies in which he owned stock
Judge Manuel Real of the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles was appointed to the bench in 1966.Photo by Virginia Lee Hunter A federal judge has issued three key rulings over a four-year period that favored companies in which he owned stock, a California Watch analysis has found. Measures are in place to prevent judges […]