Manager Refusing To Hire U.S. Workers, only H1-B Filipinos

[Dah23]

Where would a person go to report a facility that does not consider qualified applicants who are U.S. workers for employment, but instead only sponsor Filipino workers under H1-B? A Filipino lab manager at a nearby hospital who was in the U.S. on a H1-B eventually got his green card and was promoted to the manager position. Apparently he is abusing the system by denying qualified U.S. citizens employment and instead opting for Filipino workers. I know more about it than I should, because I work at a hospital in a neighboring community that actually hired one of his protégés as our lab manager. She was also Filipino and in the U.S. on PERM status. She also preferred Filipino workers to U.S. workers. We had to use the H1-B process at our facility since we had no qualified U.S. workers apply in our rural area. However, we found out that during the H1-B processes, she told candidates she was an "agent" on the side and charged them a fee of several thousand dollars each in exchange for employment. We fired her upon obtaining proof of this behavior and she went back to work under her former lab manager in the neighboring community.

So now my wife is a MLT student and is doing a clinical rotation at the neighboring facility in their lab. There is one U.S. worker there who has complained to my wife about the corrupt H1-B process at the facility. My wife's college affiliated with the facility's lab is also having problems with the Filipino manager, so much to the point where some of the other students will not go back to the corrupt lab. The program director is going to do a "pop-in" as a result of what her students have told her.

I would like for someone to report this abuse and exploitation of the system, but I cannot do it transparently myself due to my position where I work and the behavior occurring at a another facility. I have no direct tie to it and feel like it needs to come from someone who does. My wife is in a tough spot as well, because there are limited jobs available to her upon completing the MLT program. She is hoping the situation improves and she would be considered for employment at that time. What should we do?

 

[xylene]

Umm, that is stopping you from grabbing a burner phone at Wal Mart and calling up ICE and the FBI right now?

 

[cbg]

Not to mention the EEOC (national origin discrimination) and the DOL?

 

[xylene]

And the accrediting board of the lab.

 

[LdiJ]

Umm, that is stopping you from grabbing a burner phone at Wal Mart and calling up ICE and the FBI right now?

I am not sure that ICE is the right agency for this one. H1B visa holders are legally in the US and are legally able to work here. The FBI might be a valid agency to call.

 

[xylene]

I am not sure that ICE is the right agency for this one. H1B visa holders are legally in the US and are legally able to work here. The FBI might be a valid agency to call.

Even in today's climate, I'm quite sure that ICE would be very interested in an employer demanding bribes from their H1B visa holders.

 

[NeilTheCop]

Umm, that is stopping you from grabbing a burner phone at Wal Mart and calling up ICE and the FBI right now?

Save the money.
https://www.ice.gov/webform/hsi-tip-form#wcm-survey-target-id

 

[not2cleverRed]

I am not sure that ICE is the right agency for this one. H1B visa holders are legally in the US and are legally able to work here. The FBI might be a valid agency to call.

Yeah, but an employer is only supposed to hire/sponsor a H1-B visa if that person is best recruit for the job; the employer is not allowed, by law, to discriminate based on one's nation of origin. That would be an EEOC violation.

When employers prefer H1-B employees, it is sometimes because the employees are compensated less than the going rate for US citizens and LPRs having the same job descriptions, and/or because they can exert power over the H1-B visa employees (such as the "fees" described by OP) that they cannot exert over US citizens and LPRs.

In the situation OP describes, the H1B employees are effectively being paid less than US citizens and LPRs because they have to give their boss a (several thousand dollar) fee in order to be hired.

 

[Dah23]

Yeah, but an employer is only supposed to hire/sponsor a H1-B visa if that person is best recruit for the job; the employer is not allowed, by law, to discriminate based on one's nation of origin. That would be an EEOC violation.

When employers prefer H1-B employees, it is sometimes because the employees are compensated less than the going rate for US citizens and LPRs having the same job descriptions, and/or because they can exert power over the H1-B visa employees (such as the "fees" described by OP) that they cannot exert over US citizens and LPRs.

In the situation OP describes, the H1B employees are effectively being paid less than US citizens and LPRs because they have to give their boss a (several thousand dollar) fee in order to be hired.

Thank you for your response. To clarify, the manager who got fired and was acting as an agent requiring payment from the H-1B workers was doing it without any authority over hourly wage. The organization paid the workers according to the prevailing wage for their respective position under the DOL, and also paid all immigration filing fees and legal fees for the H-1B workers. The money that the manager required the workers to pay her was separate from everything else and kept secret from administration until one of the workers thankfully whistleblew. We found out that this is apparently common in the Filipino immigration community although it left us all scratching our heads as to why they would do this to each other.

I suspect given my inside knowledge of that whole incident, that the manager in the other facility is doing the same thing -- especially since both managers are Filipino and given their past work history together, but I cannot prove it. I also presume that this activity would be reported to the DOL and/or USCIS for starters, but I don't know if it can be reported anonymously or how seriously an anonymous claim would be taken.

I feel like this is a problem no one really knows about and that it is more widespread than people think. I also think it's potentially a huge can of worms and hesitate to directly report it myself due to where my information is coming from. On the other hand, it is in my nature to stand up for what's right.

 

[cbg]

Doesn't matter whether you contact the DOL, ICE or the EEOC, an anonymous claim is going to be given such low priority that you may as well not even bother. On the other hand, none of these agencies is going to go out of their way to identify who made the contact, either. Not to mention the fact that you'd be one of the few people who post here who actually had a wrongful termination claim if you were fired for making the report to an outside agency.

 

[not2cleverRed]

Thank you for your response. To clarify, the manager who got fired and was acting as an agent requiring payment from the H-1B workers was doing it without any authority over hourly wage. The organization paid the workers according to the prevailing wage for their respective position under the DOL, and also paid all immigration filing fees and legal fees for the H-1B workers. The money that the manager required the workers to pay her was separate from everything else and kept secret from administration until one of the workers thankfully whistleblew. We found out that this is apparently common in the Filipino immigration community although it left us all scratching our heads as to why they would do this to each other.

I suspect given my inside knowledge of that whole incident, that the manager in the other facility is doing the same thing -- especially since both managers are Filipino and given their past work history together, but I cannot prove it. I also presume that this activity would be reported to the DOL and/or USCIS for starters, but I don't know if it can be reported anonymously or how seriously an anonymous claim would be taken.

I feel like this is a problem no one really knows about and that it is more widespread than people think. I also think it's potentially a huge can of worms and hesitate to directly report it myself due to where my information is coming from. On the other hand, it is in my nature to stand up for what's right.

If Sally and Joe get the same wage, BUT Sally has to pay a few thousand $ kickback to a manager in order to secure her job, then Sally is effectively being paid less than Joe.

People probably collect kickbacks because they can get away with it, and like having the extra money (tax free!) in their pocket.

 

[FlyingRon]

You have to jump through hoops to hire H-1B workers. You have to show that you competed the job and found no US national (citizen or LPR) applied who was qualified. Usually, we write the descriptions pretty narrowly for the candidate we want to hire. I can tell you I don't think in ten years of legitimately using the H-1B that we ever had someone apply seriously for a position that we were intending to give the foreign national.

I'm surprised you could hire lab techs on H-1B at all. Something is seriously wrong here.

 

[Dah23]

You have to jump through hoops to hire H-1B workers. You have to show that you competed the job and found no US national (citizen or LPR) applied who was qualified. Usually, we write the descriptions pretty narrowly for the candidate we want to hire. I can tell you I don't think in ten years of legitimately using the H-1B that we ever had someone apply seriously for a position that we were intending to give the foreign national.

I'm surprised you could hire lab techs on H-1B at all. Something is seriously wrong here.

I agree with you, something is very wrong. I only assume the manager at the other facility is suppressing the qualified applicants by either not revealing applications, or finding some illegitimate reason to excuse them as "not qualified". Many rural hospitals have to use H-1B to staff their labs, and most come from the Philippines -- It's pretty common, but they must be MT's. They can't be MLT's. Both our hospital and the hospital in question are cap-exempt, so the affiliation agreement with the school in the original post becomes important, and even vital for the manager to maintain in order to get more Filipinos.

 

[Mass_Shyster]

Report the issue to USCIS

https://www.uscis.gov/working-united-states/temporary-workers/h-1b-specialty-occupations-and-fashion-models/combating-fraud-and-abuse-h-1b-visa-program

 

[NeilTheCop]

Doesn't matter whether you contact the DOL, ICE or the EEOC, an anonymous claim is going to be given such low priority that you may as well not even bother. On the other hand, none of these agencies is going to go out of their way to identify who made the contact, either. Not to mention the fact that you'd be one of the few people who post here who actually had a wrongful termination claim if you were fired for making the report to an outside agency.

On the contrary, ICE will be all over it like a bad rash as it involves multiple workers. If they get a tip about a single suspected illegal, yes, it's low on the priority list, but employers who hire illegals are always of interest especially those abusing visas.
(First hand knowledge before you ask)