Springfield, MA

A class action lawsuit has been filed against they city alleging racial and ethical employee discrimination. The lawsuit was filed with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination and claims the city of Springfield kept employee from good pay and promotions because of their race and ethnicity.

Posted by
Massachusetts
on October 26, 2007

International employee with a Masters Degree (will obtain 2nd Masters in Dec 2007) hired by company in November 2004 at a salary of $36000 per year on H1-B visa (can be verified by pay stubs)
However, the visa (labor) petition submitted to labor department states that I made $38600 per year. My copy of offer letter says I will be paid $36000 per year (2004-2005).
A copy of offer letter submitted to USCIS for filing my H1-B visa says I made $38600 (March 2005).
Current labor laws for an H1-B employee in my profession (Geologist) should be paid ~$43000 for the year 2006-2007. I currently make ~$39500

I was verbally promised a mid year (May 2005) review when I joined the company but was not given one.
Since I complained and brought this up at the annual review (Sep 2005) I was given a $500 bonus and promised another mid year review (March 2006). I got good performance ratings in the Sep 2005 review. Another employee doing the similar assignments but less qualified was promoted.

Supervisor called me without any prior intimation for a review in March 2006 and said I had performed to his expectations and that he can’t give me a raise. No evidence of poor performance was provided during this meeting. No formal performance appraisal was done. I did not get a chance to turn in my performance evaluation neither were the project managers I worked for were asked any feed back.

During 2005 and 2007 I was frequently assigned weekend work. I was assigned tougher assignments that required travel. In between two field assignments I was given writing assignments as filler work to keep me busy. Subsequently I was sent in the field. My supervisor complained I did not deliver on time. Truth being that I was not provided a laptop by the company during the time to be able to work form a remote location. At other times I was working 50 hour weeks in the field and I was expected to work on reports to be able to deliver on time. We recently moved to a new office space. Junior and less qualified staff was assigned bigger cubes than me. Junior and less qualified staff have been provided laptops.

My supervisor often asks me not to bill a client for work I have done and charge the time to overhead. My supervisor isolates me while he is very friendly to staff that sits around me. He also has a very aggressive body language whenever I go to his office to discuss a matter. My tenure at this company has changed me from an outgoing cheerful individual to a grumpy disgruntled individual. Often times I find myself crying and depressed over the way I am treated by by employer. I am unable to have a normal relationship with my family and friends because I am always sad and depressed thinking about things that happen at work.