From: Vamsi Krishna, USA

Subject: H1Bs and unscrupulous employers (continued)

I fully agree with the author (Anil Dhawan, USA ) about his opinion on exploitation of H1B visa holders. One of the major problems that the H1 B holders may be facing is the problem of employment contract.

I am not sure how much it is true whether employment contracts are actually legal beyond certain point. My employer made me sign an employment contract after luring that it is just an eyewash to impress their immigration counsels and it does not come in any way. But now, he always threatens me that if I leave the company I'll be subjected to the dire consequences of the breach of contract. With this reason he is paying me extremely low salary and treats me horrible whenever I call him for some expenses reimbursement or some immigration query.

In the employment contract there are many things pertaining to terminations. Here are some of the following: 1. Employee if he leaves the job within one year should pay for all the moving expenses, relocation allowance to the company upto a minumum of $8000.

2. Employee after termination and after two years from termination cannot join any related jobs. He cannot join the end client.He cannot join any of the clients of the employer for two years after termination. If he does he should pay 50% of the projected annual billing.

3. Employee cannot start any company of his own within 150 miles radius of the employer for two years after termination.

My employer also takes to unethical ways to get projects from us.

1. He modified my resume against my wish to increase my chances of getting selected in the interviews.

2. He did not pay me full salary but was paying only $1000 per month till I got my client.though this was not mentioned any where in the agreement.

3. He sometimes threatens me that if my project is over and I come back and stay without project, he is going to pay me again only $ 1000 per month till I get another project.

4. He said there will be training as soon as I join, but nothing of that sort was available.

5. Initially we were all kept in a "GuestHouse" - thats a three bedroom apartment and 12 people are to share!!!!

6. And they dont even organize the arrival of new people properly. Once it so happened that they assigned a guest house number to one new employee who was coming to the US for the first time and there was no one to pick him up (they were supposed to send one). He somehow managed to reach the place only to find that the guest house is locked. He had nowhere to go and he literally slept the whole night at the doorstep in the cold only to be seen the next day by neighbors. And when he informed this to his employer, they kind of made it as a joke.

Now when I want to leave the company, he may threaten me with dire consequences based upon the contract points of termination mentioned earlier.

If anyone has any suggestions, I would appreciate it.

Vamsi Krishna, USA

The views of this column are the author's own, and do not necessarily represent the views of NRI Online.