An H-1B worker represented by the attorney-author and his co-counsel was awarded $223,884.27 in unpaid wages, in the decision and order below, by the Office of Administrative Law Judges (OALJ) of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL).
Our client is a surgeon who formerly worked as an H-1B employee for the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine (SIU School of Medicine), in the job position of Assistant Professor in the Department and Division of General Surgery.
OALJ’s order found that SIU SM underpaid the H-1B worker, and failed to pay her the required actual wage, as compared to wages that SIU SM paid other surgeons in the same department and division who had the same Assistant Professor position.
SIU School of Medicine has refused to pay the unpaid wages, and has appealed the order. The H-1B worker has appealed one issue in the order, and will argue on appeal that she is owed over $200,000 in additional unpaid wages related to “clinical” compensation paid pursuant to compensation terms of SIU School of Medicine and its affiliate SIU Physicians & Surgeons, aka SIU Healthcare. She will present legal arguments that per the employer’s terms and arrangements, the “clinical” compensation was not assured (e.g. sometimes it was not paid or was subject to retroactive deductions, etc.) and it did not fulfill H-1B regulatory criteria necessary for the compensation to count toward required wages.
The attorney-author is actively investigating SIU School of Medicine’s wage practices, not only with regard to their employees who worked as H-1B workers, but also with regard to female workers employed by SIU School of Medicine, regardless whether such female workers were employed as US citizens, as H-1B workers or otherwise.
I would be interested in hearing from physicians or other medical workers who have been employed by SIU School of Medicine anytime during the last seven years and: (1) have been employed as an H-1B worker; or (2) have been a female physician or medical worker of any citizenship or visa status while employed by SIU School of Medicine.
If you wish to discuss any of these matters, please contact attorney Michael Brown at 920-757-2488 or mbrown@dvglawpartner.com.
The referenced DOL decision is below:
WI Employee Rights Lawyer: Severance, Wages, Job Termination, Discrimination 