This has happened to my brother working in the US on H1B. One of his coworkers is openly a white supremacist and a troubled person at work. He was always paranoid at work and kept on making comments that Tech billionaires and CEOs engage in some bizarre rituals and destroying America offshore. He has also engaged in friendly debates with my brother on a pretext to enlighten him which he tried to avoid but never reported it to anyone. One day this coworker shared a site through instant messenger to read which he thought was a news website. Unknowingly he trusted his coworker and opened it on a client asset which got flagged as hate speech though site itself was blocked by them.
A week later this was found by the information security team that there were 4 hits from his asset to a site flagged as Hate speech and they immediately locked his id. The HR has initiated an investigation and my brother truthfully accepted trying to open the site expecting a lighter penalty. But he also told them it came from the coworker which they didn't buy it since it wasn't reported until it was found. He tried convincing them by saying the site was already blocked so it didn't strike in his mind since even work sites gets blocked erratically sometimes and he never got a chance to read what it is all about and he moved on.
This coworker has just joined 6 months back and had a troubled past with the organization with a minor workplace altercation where he was previously let go. My brother was with the same company and client for 9 years with a good rating, remark and client appreciations however they choose to ignore it due to their zero-tolerance policy and terminated him for cause without even giving a chance to resign. It took them 5 months from the time the event took place to close the investigation and terminate him and in between, he was given a pay rise and promotion. HR called him on December 21st to let him know that he is being terminated for the cause while at the same time they were also laying off some but that coworker is not one of them. So we suspect that the coworker has perpetuated it to save his head from layoff since my brother and him were a 2 member team so it will be either him or my brother. Also, it seems like HR just used this as a reason to fire him to meet the year-end target thereby saving on the severance package.
He got a vague relieving letter confirming his employment with the company but he was not given any experience letter. Also, they were stubborn that any background verification will be told about the involuntary separation while the reason will be not be disclosed. Multiple attempts to reach HR to get the experience letter did not work so wondering is there a way to get it since total of 9 years of his experience will be wasted due to this unfortunate event. Because of this incident, he is totally devastated and has yet to recover from it. It is one of the top 5 services companies based out of India as well where I too work at the capacity of Senior manager. Can I get him HR heads email addresses or speaks on his behalf since HR managers are not responding to his query or is there any other legal remedy to this? Appreciate it if anyone can advise on this.
From India, Chennai
A week later this was found by the information security team that there were 4 hits from his asset to a site flagged as Hate speech and they immediately locked his id. The HR has initiated an investigation and my brother truthfully accepted trying to open the site expecting a lighter penalty. But he also told them it came from the coworker which they didn't buy it since it wasn't reported until it was found. He tried convincing them by saying the site was already blocked so it didn't strike in his mind since even work sites gets blocked erratically sometimes and he never got a chance to read what it is all about and he moved on.
This coworker has just joined 6 months back and had a troubled past with the organization with a minor workplace altercation where he was previously let go. My brother was with the same company and client for 9 years with a good rating, remark and client appreciations however they choose to ignore it due to their zero-tolerance policy and terminated him for cause without even giving a chance to resign. It took them 5 months from the time the event took place to close the investigation and terminate him and in between, he was given a pay rise and promotion. HR called him on December 21st to let him know that he is being terminated for the cause while at the same time they were also laying off some but that coworker is not one of them. So we suspect that the coworker has perpetuated it to save his head from layoff since my brother and him were a 2 member team so it will be either him or my brother. Also, it seems like HR just used this as a reason to fire him to meet the year-end target thereby saving on the severance package.
He got a vague relieving letter confirming his employment with the company but he was not given any experience letter. Also, they were stubborn that any background verification will be told about the involuntary separation while the reason will be not be disclosed. Multiple attempts to reach HR to get the experience letter did not work so wondering is there a way to get it since total of 9 years of his experience will be wasted due to this unfortunate event. Because of this incident, he is totally devastated and has yet to recover from it. It is one of the top 5 services companies based out of India as well where I too work at the capacity of Senior manager. Can I get him HR heads email addresses or speaks on his behalf since HR managers are not responding to his query or is there any other legal remedy to this? Appreciate it if anyone can advise on this.
From India, Chennai
If the poster's brother feels that his termination was wrongful, he can take recourse under particular State Labor Law in the U.S.A.
I understand that some States in the U.S adopt the policy of " Employment at Will ". In that case it will be difficult to put up a case. But, I think that he can demand an experience certificate from the employer.
Any other members well versed in U.S Employment Laws and Settlement of Employment Grievances can throw more light on this thread.
From India, Salem
6016I understand that some States in the U.S adopt the policy of " Employment at Will ". In that case it will be difficult to put up a case. But, I think that he can demand an experience certificate from the employer.
Any other members well versed in U.S Employment Laws and Settlement of Employment Grievances can throw more light on this thread.
From India, Salem
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Relieving & Experience Letter.doc