Desi Company withholding pay, not providing experience letter!

[natasha_reddy]

Hi All,

My GC saga continues with more twists and turns. I had posted on this forum regarding my porting and I140 situation couple months ago. So, let me brief up long story in short lines.

I worked for a consulting company for 5.4 years ( had my GC filed under EB3, ofcourse I paid for all H1b extensions, GC process and found my own client project throughout) and now I have moved on to another company who is starting my GC in EB2.

So, the problem here is, inspite of my multiple requests my Ex- employer is giving me a run for my experience letter and is with holding my last month pay saying "I can't pay you until Client Pays me". I have gone through a lot to get to this point, had to fight to get a copy of my I140 and now he is again giving me a hard time. It's a small company and I have no idea about other employees of his. He really pushed my button today when I called him. He was very rude, disrespectful, unprofessional and inconsiderate of me and my requests and I couldn't take it any more and I told him that I would report this to DOL and will have a notice served by my attorney. After hearing this, he said he would send all my documents by next week, but did not mention anything about the pay.

I really wanted to solve things amicably but, he really makes it so difficult for me every single time. Any suggestions of how I should handle this going forward? anyone who faced a similar situation? Appreciate your experiences.

MURTHY ATTORNEYS!! your response is highly appreciated!

Regards,

Nats

[pontevecchio]

Spend some money and hire the firm of Murthy to help you.

[JoeF]

If you are on H1, the employer has to pay you no matter what. Not getting money from the client is not an excuse to not pay you.

File a complaint with DOL on form WH4. The DOL will make the employer pay you.

[Chitown01]

If you really need the experience letter then try and get it first nicely and then complain to DOL

Good Luck !!

[AmitR]

Your ex employer is legally responsible to pay you for all hours worked. Actually, as long as you were on H-1B with that company and were in the US, irrespective of whether you were on a project or not, they are still required to pay you. They also have to provide you with copy of the LCA and make it available to anyone who goes to their office and asks to view copy. The LC stated whether you are part-time or full-time employee and what our minimum pay should be, another thing you can taken them up on if they were not paying you at least the minimum in any year.

Warn them that if they do not provide you with all your documentation (I-797s, other approval noticed for H-!B, Labor cert, I-140) as well as your pay and a copy of the LCA, you will file a complaint with the DOL which by the way you can do for free using the WH-4 form which is available on the DOL website along with instructions to fill it up and how they handle complaints.

DOL Laws in the US are very heavily in favor of employees on work visas, so you have everything going for you, and you may be able to get this resolved w/o even involving an attorney and paying their high fees, unless you have something more complex going on with your case.

As for whether I was in a similar situation as you, yes I was. I made sure to keep all communication in writing. If following a verbal discussion (phone, face-to-face), I normally followed up by sending them a letter noting down all that was discussed and asking them to reply "in writing" with corrections failing which I would assume all that I stated was correct. This written communication to them was sent by fax, registered post and email so they was proof that I used multiple ways of contacting them using my best efforts (all things the DOL looks for and strengthen your case). They failure to respond automatically put them at a disadvantage. They feared being pulled up by the DOL for multiple violations against multiple employees and promptly (within a week) paid all back-wages, refunded an initial training deposit (which I should not have given them in the first place) and provided all documentation and an experience letter too to assist with with filing a work visa with a different company (more to just get me out of their hair)

I would be happy to share a template of the letter I sent them which set the ball rolling in my favor (if I can dig it up from old emails) so you can reference it can create one of your own pertaining more to your situation ... just let me know.

[natasha_reddy]

Your ex employer is legally responsible to pay you for all hours worked. Actually, as long as you were on H-1B with that company and were in the US, irrespective of whether you were on a project or not, they are still required to pay you. They also have to provide you with copy of the LCA and make it available to anyone who goes to their office and asks to view copy. The LC stated whether you are part-time or full-time employee and what our minimum pay should be, another thing you can taken them up on if they were not paying you at least the minimum in any year. Warn them that if they do not provide you with all your documentation (I-797s, other approval noticed for H-!B, Labor cert, I-140) as well as your pay and a copy of the LCA, you will file a complaint with the DOL which by the way you can do for free using the WH-4 form which is available on the DOL website along with instructions to fill it up and how they handle complaints. DOL Laws in the US are very heavily in favor of employees on work visas, so you have everything going for you, and you may be able to get this resolved w/o even involving an attorney and paying their high fees, unless you have something more complex going on with your case. As for whether I was in a similar situation as you, yes I was. I made sure to keep all communication in writing. If following a verbal discussion (phone, face-to-face), I normally followed up by sending them a letter noting down all that was discussed and asking them to reply "in writing" with corrections failing which I would assume all that I stated was correct. This written communication to them was sent by fax, registered post and email so they was proof that I used multiple ways of contacting them using my best efforts (all things the DOL looks for and strengthen your case). They failure to respond automatically put them at a disadvantage. They feared being pulled up by the DOL for multiple violations against multiple employees and promptly (within a week) paid all back-wages, refunded an initial training deposit (which I should not have given them in the first place) and provided all documentation and an experience letter too to assist with with filing a work visa with a different company (more to just get me out of their hair) I would be happy to share a template of the letter I sent them which set the ball rolling in my favor (if I can dig it up from old emails) so you can reference it can create one of your own pertaining more to your situation ... just let me know.

Hi Amit. Thank you so much for your detailed response. I'd appreciate if you could share the template.