Are h1b employees required to work during garden leave? Management forcing me to work despite being on garden leave. Is it even legal? When I asked HR- they said oh it’s a grey area, but due to your status you must work. Is that a lie?
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@qa "True or False MDT will ONLY sponsor a Principle + level position only?"
Massively false. There's sponsorship at every career level from new grad on up. And the $100k fee is being contested in court, employers aren't required to currently pay it and it doesn't even apply in all cases. At this point, this thread is a dumpster fire of mis-information. There's far more incorrect info than there is correct.
@qa True, because the law requires the role is specialized and hard to hire for if it is given to an H1B holder. The "HR Compliance" department does this work and makes sure the position can even be justified as being for a visa holder. By default it should go to a US citizen.
@pg That's not how it works. The jobs given to H1B holders have to be shown to be difficult to hire US citizens for. It's a specialty visa for specialised work and doesn't transfer to any old job.
True or False MDT will ONLY sponsor a Principle + level position only? That's a large chunk of change that should be used to pay a USA citizen capable to do the same job. Guessing that why the fee is 100K. In 20 yrs I've yet to meet a 260K (including salary) principle at MDT.
Sorry but True.
@a4 "lmao but then again H1B visa is like a modern day slavery visa like the 1800s where the employer owns you"
They have a full-time position and benefits. How is it slave labor? In fact, every H1-B worker I've ever had has been paid better than their non-sponsored counterpart as it's a required part of the process to align their salary with prevailing wage in their area and the statistics are provided by the DOL. That doesn't happen for the non H1-B individuals, we can underpay them and there's no government process requiring their salary to be re-aligned. Biggest salary increases (by %) I've ever given out have been to employees going through the H1-B process to align them with the DOL guidelines.
Bad news for these folks, Honestly if I were in this VISA mess I'd be applying for a job for any type of job at a MDT site, sc--w the fancy title I have now or salary. Give me anything to support my family and stay in the USA.
I googled the difference of the 2 mentioned "The H-1B is a specific type of U.S. work visa designed for professionals in specialty occupations, whereas a "work visa" is a broad category that includes many different types of authorizations"
My thinking is Boston based folks are there to write software based on H-1B question? Hence would you not require a new position in software writing? MDT has an entire building in India for software development. IDK this whole mess now is as confusing as is the HUGO project structure itself.
Anyways Best of luck folks
You must be very careful. Medtronic is required to notify Immigration if they terminate your job. There is a grace period and such. I would make no waves and find another job to transfer the visa to ASAP. ICE would see deporting you as low hanging fruit to meet quotas. Trump has changed H1B with a $100K fee among other changes. That may actually help you if you can transfer your status.
@a5 "I believe a work visa equals "contractor status" so IMO if you want to continue getting a MDT paycheck your required to work or your free to seek employment elsewhere. Garden leave is a trick to avoid the "Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act" a basic right reserved for US citizens who are classified a FTE . Sorry but you do not qualify."
Huge face palm on this one, not 1 thing you said here is remotely correct. (1) employed on work visa is independent from being full-time or contractor. If you're hired full-time but need to sponsored for a work visa status it doesn't change your worker status, you are still full-time. (2) the 60 day notice they are providing is to comply with the WARN act. (3) Graden leave is not a trick at all. Garden leave is simply an industry term that they are paying you to go home instead of continuing to have you do work for them for the 60 day period outlined by the WARN act. If they offer this, I'd consider it a benefit and not a trick at all.
"Management forcing me to work despite being on garden leave. Is it even legal?"
Garden leave is a benefit the company offers, and not a right. Due to the WARN act, employers must provide 60 days advance notice for large layoffs or plant closures. That's all that's required from a law perspective. Most employers, especially for office/corporate positions prefer to just pay you and send you home with no further work duties as they feel it's a risk to continue to keep employees with access to many systems who have been informed their position is ending. But that's their choice. They are paying you for the next 60 days, if they want you to continue to be performing job duties that is their right to. There's no law being broken in that case.
I saw a difference depending on the manager. One manager told them to focus on finding a new job. The remaining team members were asked to limit communication. Another manager had the h1b laid-off people working. In one case, the manager had them putting together training materials for their temporary replacements. Horrible.
Ask your actual employer what their policy on this situation would be. My guess. "If we can't bill your labor you don't get paid"
I believe a work visa equals "contractor status" so IMO if you want to continue getting a MDT paycheck your required to work or your free to seek employment elsewhere. Garden leave is a trick to avoid the "Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act" a basic right reserved for US citizens who are classified a FTE . Sorry but you do not qualify.
No lmao but then again H1B visa is like a modern day slavery visa like the 1800s where the employer owns you
No wonder Medtronic and other companies love people on this visa to exploit to the fullest
Good luck
garden leave is a courtesy and not a right/policy as far as I know, so yes they can ask you to work