H1B - Pregnant and laidoff

[HRPRO]

If you file a Discrimination law suit, it is the responsiblity of your employer to prove other wise. As long as they have followed the same policy and can prove thet have acted in good faith in the case of all terminations, they will not have a problem. But since it opens a can of worms and brings to light all terminations they may and most likely settle the claim or even extend your employment. But if they have a strong HR department who are confident of facing the claim, they wont budge. Use your judgement as you know your employer better than anyone.

As long as they dont revoke your termination letter, FMLA will not help you. FMLA doesn't pay you and only protects your employment. But in your case you have already received your notice before you could provide your doctors note requesting time off and you cannot submit one after you have received your termination of employment notice. Moreover I dont know the size of your company and it is important as they will have to have at least 50 employees within a 75 mile radius of your location for them to even offer this benefit to employees in your location.

With the limited info, I cant guide you more but worst case scenario, have them get you a one way ticket to your country of origin as it is their responsiblity to do it and switch employers.

Just a personal advice, dont get stressed too much at this time, it is not worth it, there is more to life and in your case lives. Congrats

[ilikekilo]

Originally Posted by qasleuth

One more idea (obviously this not legal advice and you may need to take the services of a lawyer):
if their past history does not show this policy of laying off everyone who comes off a project then slap them with a legal notice for discrimination and negotiate a 'severance pay' which will keep you in legal status till the baby is born and you recuperate.

I kinda agree and also if yo uahve someone to work for those things on your behalf, go ahead, however in the end I would strongly recommend that you take rest and dont physically and mentally get stressed. IT may not be worth it, mom and baby's health is paramount.

THat being said, it is NOT right if they have done this with bad intentions. DOo whatever you thing is right, serve them a notice or whatever or wait until the baby is delivered, if you ahve your spouse's insurance, get on that..

[ilikekilo]

Originally Posted by ilikekilo

I kinda agree and also if yo uahve someone to work for those things on your behalf, go ahead, however in the end I would strongly recommend that you take rest and dont physically and mentally get stressed. IT may not be worth it, mom and baby's health is paramount.

THat being said, it is NOT right if they have done this with bad intentions. DOo whatever you thing is right, serve them a notice or whatever or wait until the baby is delivered, if you ahve your spouse's insurance, get on that..

Keep in mind that WORST case, you should have COBRA benefits...although they are very expensive...

[ilikekilo]

Originally Posted by snathan

You send a email stating that you can not accept the phone conversation and need a written notice. Also ask them to provide the air ticket. It does not matter you are using or not. Let them pay for it.

Tell them as per the USCIS/DOL rule, they must provide the ticket if they revoke the H1B. Thats the law. Don’t forget to let them know you are filing the law suite...So the onus is on them to prove you are not laid off because of your pregnancy.

DO NOT accept any ORAL terminations, I dont think its valid and legal.

again ask for COBRA , the last final option, by law you have to provided with COBRA benefits up to 18 months or so..

[mango2009]

Thanks everybody for your wishes and your advise.

Many of you have asked about my employer, It is not a small company, it is one of the top consulting companies and I am working for this company from past 3 years.
Thanks again for all your advise and support.

[apume]

Is it Deloitte or PWC or Accenture or McKinsey ? Just curious...

[ilikekilo]

Originally Posted by ilikekilo

DO NOT accept any ORAL terminations, I dont think its valid and legal.

again ask for COBRA , the last final option, by law you have to provided with COBRA benefits up to 18 months or so..

I know I have posted mutiple mesages on this thread , was just trying to help..however whoever gave me a RED for whatever reason can come KMA...

haha...someone put a comment like this... What a ridiculous brainless avatar you have !

if my avatar is too mature for you just shut your eyes, , you dont belong here..

[PresidentO]

Take care of yourself and your baby by not stressing out too much.

FMLA is not blanket protection for pregnant women. If your employer can prove that he/she laid you off because he had to lay you off, then they are fine. Your employer is also cognizant of the fact that you can file a discrimination suit, which can cost more than what he has to pay you for 3 months (during FMLA, if benefits include payment) and pay another 3 months after you return (FMLA requires employers to give the returning woman the same/similar job, again if the employer can prove that he has to lay you off it does not apply)

As you may know, payrolls shed another 650K jobs this March. So it is not going to be difficult for your employer to prove so. Many people are advising law suit and DOL complaints. I think it is NOT worth unless you can prove the following

(1) You have been assigned to projects beyond your delivery date. (most imp, IMO) If you are, Take screen shots or forward copies of emails to your other emails.

(2) you havent been currently on bench along with many other people for significant amount of time.

(3) your lay off has got nothing to do with company wide layoffs or cost reduction.

(4) your yearly or semi annual reviews were satisfactory or excellent.

If your employer is a big consulting company he knows what FMLA is inside out than many of us here and as I said before, he will not dare fire you if there is a remote chance that you can prove discrimination. Glean as much info as you can here and make the right choice. What ever decision you make make it soon as it can hurt you mentally and create stress.

[vjkypally]

I think if this layoff affected only you, IV should use it's media contacts and get this out on the media. This is abuse of H-1 people.

Also like mentioned by others get a written notice, flight ticket etc. Keep posting your updates.

[qasleuth]

Originally Posted by vjkypally

I think if this layoff affected only you, IV should use it's media contacts and get this out on the media. This is abuse of H-1 people.

Please do not make a federal case of every event and turn it into a "abuse of H-1 people" circus. Getting laid off during pregnancy is an unfortunate event that is pretty common (to anyone not just H1) and can be an outcome of a genuine policy (like the one given to OP) or an unscrupulous employer trying to save money.

[sidbee]

Originally Posted by mango2009

I am on H1B visa , my I=94 expires on August 03 2009. I am employed with same company from past 3 years (Clean employment history)
At present I am 7 months pregnant and my employer gave me 30 day notice to terminate me from the job. What are my options?

1. Will my pregnancy affect H1 transfer? I can not work after sometime based on my situation.
2. what are other options I have? Please suggest.

Thanks in advance for your help.

The policy of your company to lay you off on bench is legal and 100% justified(according to h1 b law, many companies (eg cognizant) do this)

Pregnancy should not effect a H1 transfer , you should clarify to the new employer about the some days of sick leave you would be taking later. i do not recommend paying for H1 transfer to a desi consultant , just to save yourstatus(this is illegal)

The only option you have is to find a good legal job and apply for H1, or apply for F1(Students also do get ,medical insurance from the university)

If nothing works out, continue with Cobra , and leave back to india after delivery , as you should not be flying , under medical advice right now.

I am not a doctor or a lawyer , and this is just a friendly advice, you should consult a immigration attorney , to explain and get advice on your situation.

[vjkypally]

Do you have any proof, instead of coming up with things like it's pretty common, I ve been here legally for over 10 years and I haven't seen it, so guess its not that common then....You must be an anti immigrant lurking here...

Originally Posted by qasleuth

Please do not make a federal case of every event and turn it into a "abuse of H-1 people" circus. Getting laid off during pregnancy is an unfortunate event that is pretty common (to anyone not just H1) and can be an outcome of a genuine policy (like the one given to OP) or an unscrupulous employer trying to save money.

[PresidentO]

Originally Posted by vjkypally

Do you have any proof, instead of coming up with things like it's pretty common, I ve been here legally for over 10 years and I haven't seen it, so guess its not that common then....You must be an anti immigrant lurking here...

Dude,

Stop acting like you have seen it all. You might have seen a lot in 10 years and just because you have not seen it does not mean that it should not happen. Get your facts right. I know this well because my friend got laid off when she was pregnant (actually 2 weeks ago) and she was not the only one who was/is getting laid off these days. Stop hallucinating that FMLA is blanket protection and offers job security, no matter what. There is a difference between discrimination and genuine layoff. Only the OP can decide what it is, we can only provide help on what is discrimination and what is a genuine layoff. As the other guy said, this is not an issue to be sensationalized, just because you havent seen it happen in 10 years.

[qasleuth]

Originally Posted by vjkypally

Do you have any proof, instead of coming up with things like it's pretty common, I ve been here legally for over 10 years and I haven't seen it, so guess its not that common then....You must be an anti immigrant lurking here...

"Last year the number of pregnancy-based discrimination charges filed with the E.E.O.C. was up nearly 50 percent from a decade earlier, to a total of 6,285" - Source: Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Employers with less than 20 people on their payroll, do you know how difficult it is to find affordable health insurance ? They try to do everything to avoid an increase in cost. Obviously, I am not generalizing here but it is pretty tempting to a lot of employers.

[Onlytruthnobs]

A famous film actress was fired because she got pregnant before the filming began. The actress sued and she won the case.

If you are not planning to sue the company, I would say you are the biggest idiot on this planet. This is to put it mildly.

Stop being an idiot and sue the company. Any lawyer will take your case.

Good luck!!