WASHINGTON — The Clinton administration is expected to veto high-tech immigration legislation if, as expected, Congress approves a compromise bill that waters down worker protection provisions favored by U.S. engineering groups.

While administration officials said they hadn't seen details of compromise legislation announced by lawmakers , they reiterated President Clinton's pledge to veto any law that raised the annual cap on temporary H-1B visas without including adequate safeguards for U.S. workers.

"For the president to sign a bill that increases the cap on the visas it must contain a significant training component and meaningful reform to the H-1B program," a White House source said. Specifically, the White House wants to "ensure that employers recruit U.S. workers before applying for an H-1B worker, and not lay off a U.S. individual in order to hire an H-1B worker," the source said.

The revised bill would raise the annual cap on H-1B visas from the current 65,000 to 85,000 this year, 95,000 in 1999, 105,000 in 2000 and 115,000 in 2001 and 2002. The annual cap would return to 65,000 beginning in 2003.

The Senate approved legislation in May raising the H-1B visa cap in a bill backed by PC and semiconductor industry executives.

The compromise brokered by congressional leaders would require "heavy users" of foreign temporary workers to attest they have recruited American workers and not laid off American workers. Engineering groups complained last week the provision would apply only to employers whose H-1B employees constitute at least 15 percent of their work force.

"They've basically removed most of the [worker] safeguards," said Paul Kostek, president-elect of the Washington-based Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers-USA.

Other engineering groups said they also oppose the visa compromise, and urged a veto. "The negotiated H-1B bill has no significant U.S. worker protection," said Robert Rivers, chairman of the manpower committee at the American Engineering Association (Fort Worth, Texas). Under the compromise, Rivers added, "Worker protection would be provided for only a small portion of H-1B workers associated with foreign-worker-dominated job shops. All the rest of employers could hire H-1B's without the no-layoff attestations and continue getting by with paying substandard salaries."

Engineering groups also point out that the recent spike in engineering unemployment-a nearly threefold increase between the first and second quarters, to 2.2 percent-means now is not the time to bring more foreign engineers into the United States. Silicon Valley executives countered that the annual cap on H-1B visas was reached in May. This has prevented them from bringing in skilled immigrants to complete projects, they argued in persuading the Senate to raise the H-1B cap.

But IEEE-USA officials said most H-1B visa holders sponsored by high-tech firms are engaged in relatively simple programming tasks such as debugging and testing.

With a final vote coming just before lawmakers head home for their reelection campaigns, the H-1B debate is expected to become an issue in the fall elections.