Has your H-1B employer promised you a wage that is based on a percentage of project work? If so, read on, as this article discusses some common issues and important considerations for H-1B workers offered percentage-based pay. This includes the importance of having documentation of what the employer promised.
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Are you aware of a meat supplier or restaurant selling “meat-glued” meat– e.g. a “filet” of meat that was actually made of smaller meat scraps “glued” together– and not labeling the meat in a way customers would understand that’s the case? If so and you are interested in discussing this privately, please call attorney Michael Brown at 920-757-2488, or please email Attorney Brown at mbrown@dvglawpartner.com.
We are investigating meat suppliers’ and restaurants’ use of the product commonly referred to as “meat glue.” This product is being used by some meat product companies and restaurants to bind (“glue”) together scraps of meat into a single piece, and sell it as if it were one cut of higher-grade meat (e.g. a “filet”). There may be false advertising or consumer law violations in certain situations, if meat-glued products are not being correctly labeled as the law requires.
The meat-glue substance itself is a powder mix, sold under the brand names Activa or Fibrimex. The Activa product is made with the enzyme transglutaminase, also called TG or TGase. The Fibrimex product is made with the enzyme fibrin.
Again, please contact me at phone or email address above if you’ve encountered someone’s use of meat glue to improperly handle or sell meat.
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If you get in a workplace dispute, watch your emotions carefully. If you lose your cool, you will likely lose your job.
People understandably feel strong emotions when confronted with strong emotions– say if a boss or HR rep is treating you condenscendingly, sarcastically, or worse, is yelling at you. If these things happen, it is hard not to let emotions well up and take over. But that is exactly what you have to prevent.
If management loses their cool, they keep their jobs. You do not make the decision whether your managers keep their jobs, when they lost their cool in dealing with you. But if you lose YOUR cool in dealing with them, then they can choose whether to label your actions “insubordination” or “misconduct”, etc. They can choose to fire you.
These are simple concepts. But the minute a worker gets into a dispute, he is quick to forget the logical concepts above, and likely to lose his cool. Don’t lose your cool. It will do you no good, and will likely cost you your job.
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If you are a worker in a dispute — whether it’s a dispute with your current employer’s management, a dispute with your former employer about unemployment benefits, etc.– there is something important you should know.
Regardless of what the employer may have done wrong, YOU are probably the person who is under the most scrutiny, and who has the most to lose. That is, you are probably the one on the hotseat.
In a letter to Department of State Secretary Hillary Clinton and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Grassley cited a Seattle Times story that outlined questionable practices by The Boeing Company in using the B-1 visa instead of the H-1B visa to bring in workers from Moscow.
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If you are an H-1B worker with unpaid wages, as we have described before, there is a 1-year deadline for a particular type of legal complaint you could pursue. That is, there is 1-year deadline to file a WH-4 complaint at the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL).
We have found that many H-1B workers (whether they have read our blog or not) are aware that a WH4 complaint can be pursued at DOL as a way to seek unpaid wages.
However, some H-1B workers who are past the 1-year deadline for a WH4 complaint may assume they have lost their chance to pursue unpaid wages.
Please know that often this is not the case. There often are options an H-1B worker can consider when the unpaid wages were earned more than one year ago. For example, several Federal and State laws (unlike the H-1B regulations and WH4 process) allow deadline periods of 2-6 years to pursue unpaid wages. So, if an H-1B worker’s employer had failed to pay wages that were due more than a year ago, that worker– while not having options at DOL per the WH4 complaint process– may well have options under other Federal or State laws. The attorney-authors of this blog can speak to this firsthand, as we have represented H-1B workers in several legal actions with legal claims seeking wages owed from several years prior.
The take-home points for you, as an underpaid H-1B worker, are these: (1) if you’re owed wages from more than one year ago, don’t assume you are beyond all legal deadlines to pursue those wages, unless a competent attorney tells you that following a consultation; and (2) if you are interested in a potential legal complaint, promptly have an attorney evaluate your situation, potential legal claims, and deadlines. The longer you wait, the more likely it is that all applicable legal deadlines will pass.
Before they retained us, many underpaid workers we represent had tried to get their unpaid wages by themselves and without an attorney. The workers tried to (1) get the wages directly from the employer, via complaining or negotiating; (2) filed a legal complaint with a government agency; or (3) took both of these actions.
Many underpaid workers who take action without an attorney are unsuccessful. There are a number of reasons for this, not all of which we’ll discuss in this article.
But one big reason underpaid workers fail to obtain their wages is this: they do not know that obtaining unpaid wages is a process.
You cannot expect unpaid wages to be paid to you until the required process has been completed. Much like a baby cannot be born unless and until a process (namely, pregnancy) has taken place, as well as the related passage of time needed for that process (often, close to 9 months), and the related work (addressing medical needs, dietary and physical needs, etc.).
Do you know all the different processes that could lead to you obtaining your unpaid wages? Do you know all the potential risks and benefits of pursuing each process (and are you SURE about that)? Do you know which process is the best one to pursue? Do you know how much time that process is likely to take, and all the work/tasks that are necessary for that process?
If you don’t have good answers to these questions, an experienced wage attorney will. That’s not to say you must retain an attorney, or that you must pursue any particular process. But if you fail to realize there IS a process involved with an unpaid wage matter, and fail to consider the questions above, then you are less likely to be successful in obtaining your unpaid wages and otherwise achieving what you want to.
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Blog author-attorney Michael Brown, who represents John Kroner in the case of John Kroner v. Oneida Seven Generations Corporation (Appeal No. 2010AP002533), conducted argument before the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The issues before the Supreme Court concern the Brown County Circuit Court’s decision to transfer the case to the Oneida Tribal Judicial System, and whether that decision was appropriate under Wisconsin’s tribal transfer statute (Wis. Stat. 801.54) and other law concerning tribal jurisdiction.
Video and audio recordings of the parties’ oral arguments are available here at the Wisconsin Eye website.
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Many employees engaged in employment disputes believe that the truth will set them free. That once the employer, or the legal system, finds out the employee is factually correct or “in the right,” then everything will work out in the employee’s favor.
This view, while understandable, is flat wrong. More often than not, the truth does not set an employee free from their dispute.
Consider this. Say a given person is diagnosed with cancer. In most instances, such a person would probably (1) recognize he was in a severe situation; (2) seek the assistance of a professional (e.g. doctor, etc.); (3) undertake steps to best deal with the situation (e.g. treatment); and (4) recognize that those steps would improve the ODDS of a successful outcome, but would not be a guarantee. Accordingly, the person would recognize the situation to be one that involved risk, and that required careful attention to how it was managed.
All of the same factors apply in a legal dispute. The unfairness, or untruth, of your situation will not cause matters to resolve in your favor. There is risk involved with your situation, however right you may be, and how your situation works out depends in large part on the (careful) steps you take, and a number of factors involved.
The truth is just one factor, one variable, in a legal dispute. Other variables include, but are not limited to: what other witnesses will say (i.e. their “truths” asserted), what documentation supports your case, the employer’s level of wealth and leverage, the legal resources available (e.g. whether you can get an attorney, whether a legal claim exists or doesn’t exist for your situation, however unfair, etc.), the timing of your matter (e.g. whether you are beyond a deadline), the particular legal authority you’re dealing with (e.g. the particular unemployment claims adjudicator, judge, jury) and so on.
I don’t write all this to be pessimistic. Often, employees DO have good legal claims and successful outcomes in employment disputes.
However, if you hold the mistaken assumption that the truth will set you free, and you ACT based on that assumption– for example, if you give your employer or an unemployment adjudicator an earful about how “right” you are– you will find out the hard way how insufficient the truth is in the employment-law world.
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The Wisconsin Lawyer Assistance Program (WisLAP) has posted a video on YouTube (embedded below), which describes the WisLAP program. As stated at WisLAP’s website:
The Wisconsin Lawyers Assistance Program (WisLAP) provides confidential assistance to help lawyers, judges, law students, and their families cope with problems related to the stress of practicing law.
Attorney Michael Brown (this blog’s author) is a volunteer with WisLAP, and is happy to discuss the program with anyone who wants more information about it.
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Take Justice Back Daily Developments in EEO Law by Paul Mollica
WI Employee Rights Lawyer: Severance, Wages, Job Termination, Discrimination 