How H1-B Displaced US Workers are Silenced by Non-Disparagement Clauses

ByShaun Snapp

Executive Summary

  • Companies that displace US workers with H1-Bs typically force them to sign a non-disparagement letter.
  • This has dramatically silenced displaced US workers.

Introduction

The H1-B worker displacement of US citizens would be much bigger news with many more details if companies did not routinely force employees to sign non-disparagement letters.

Holding a Worker’s, Severance, Unemployment, and Recommendations in Return for Their Silence

Such provisions are standard to protect proprietary information. But these particular insidious stipulations are intended to squelch free speech and prevent workers from talking about their plight. If an American is brave enough to forgoe a severance pacakge and says, “Shove it, I’m not training any foriegn replacements,” he risks termination with cusae and denial of unemployment benefits as well becuase then the employer can fire the American and report to the state unemployment agency that it was for cause. – Sold Out

When the story gets out, it is often explosive.

At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on H1-Bs displacement of American workers in March 2015, lawmakers heard from Jay Palmer, the former Infosys worker whose federal lawsuit over abuse of the H1-B and B-1 programs resulted in the largest work visa program settlement of its kind — $34 million. Palmer faced harassment, retaliation, blacklisting, and death threats for exposing the Infosys racket. Palmer described how on January 2000 he “personally witnessed more than 7,000 Americans jobs cut at Home Depot in Atlanta. Months before these American employees trained their replacements from Infosys and other Indian based companies.” – Sold Out

Nondisparagement Agreements Explained by Protect US Workers

This video, From Protect US Workers, explains the sequence of displacement and the role of non-disparagement agreements that are forced on US workers.

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Conclusion

Nondisparagement letters are required when a company is doing something it is embarrassed about, and it does not want to become public. If these employees have these experiences, then they have the right to go public. It is well known at this point that these non-disparagement letters have gotten out of hand and are signed under extreme pressure. Companies should also not have the right to stop a former employee from collecting unemployment simply because they refused to sign a non-disparagement letter.

References

*https://www.amazon.com/Sold-Out-Billionaires-Bipartisan-Crapweasels/dp/1501115944/