Fired H-1B Librarian Wins Lawsuit

Date: Friday, March 18, 2005 12:44 PM

JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

by Rob Sanchez
March 18, 2005 No. 1217

The article below is so poorly written that I decided to explain what
happened in a more understandable fashion.

OK, here goes:

The Charles A. Ransom District Library in Plainwell, Michigan sponsored
an H-1B visa for David Michael, a British national, to be the director
of the library. Michael had an understanding or agreement with the
library trustees that after his period of indentured servitude was over
he would be sponsored for a Green Card so he could stay in the U.S.
forever and be a mascot for a Michigan high school women's football
team.

The arrangement the trustees made with Michael is nothing unusual -
companies often use the promise of a Green Card as a carrot to entice
H-1Bs to work like a slave until their Green Card is approved. It's
important to keep in mind that employers have no legal obligation to
sponsor their H-1Bs for a Green Card and more often than not they
don't. Most employers would rather hire another H-1B instead of having
to deal with a permanent visa so they will usually fire the H-1B before
the visa expires. Churning H-1Bs insures that employers never have to
bother with Green Card holders who may start demanding to be treated
like an American worker.

Michael never got his Green Card because the trustees fired him in
2004. Once unemployed, Michael's H-1B became out-of-status which
disqualified him for a Green Card. Now here is where things get really
interesting! The first article never explains specifically why he
didn't have legal status to work in the U.S.

The library's former director, David Michael, a British
national, was fired in June 2004 after trustees withdrew
support for his green-card application because it appeared
he did not have legal status to work in the United States.

I smelled something kind of fishy here so I spent some time Googling
and lo-and-behold I found the answer! The reason the trustees didn't
want Michael on the payroll is because there were at least 10 Americans
that were qualified for the job. Could it be that some of those
Americans were threatening to sue the city over their discriminatory
hiring practices so they decided to dump Michael before he got his
Green Card?

This is what I found by Googling:

Pat Davis, one of the township's representatives to the
Charles A. Ransom District Library's board, said library
director David Michael is unlikely to be able to satisfy
immigration requirements for a more permanent work visa.

"We have identified 10 qualified U.S. citizens for the
position of library director."

At this point the library trustees were doing the right thing. If they
knew there were that many qualified U.S. citizens that were willing to
take the job, they should not keep Michael on the payroll. The Allegan
County Circuit Court obviously disagreed with the trustees because it
awarded David Michael with $14,500 settlement for his lawsuit against
the trustees.

The moral of this story for employers is that they better not replace
H-1Bs with qualified U.S. citizens!

As a side note: The Charles A. Ransom District Library is sitting on a
garbage dump and it's sinking into the ground. Seems appropriate, huh?

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://www.mlive.com/news/kzgazette/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1111164627173950.xml

Plainwell library settles suit with ex-director

Friday, March 18, 2005
Special to the Gazette
PLAINWELL -- A turbulent chapter at the Charles A. Ransom District
Library seems to be ending after library trustees agreed to settle a
lawsuit filed by a former director who was fired last year amid
controversy about his immigration status.

"I don't believe there will be any repercussions from the settlement,"
Library Board President Alan Asselmeier said. "There are only benefits
to be gained. I expect the library to become more of a treasure to the
community."

Asselmeier and six other library trustees voted during a recent meeting
to accept the settlement. Opposing the motion was Gun Plain Township
representative David Prentice.

The library's former director, David Michael, a British national, was
fired in June 2004 after trustees withdrew support for his green-card
application because it appeared he did not have legal status to work in
the United States.

The next month, Michael filed a lawsuit in Allegan County Circuit Court
against the library and four trustees who he alleged were acting
"outside the scope of their authority."

Michael and Asselmeier declined to discuss the settlement in detail.
But both men acknowledged that Michael is to receive a $14,500 payment
from the library's insurance company and now agree that trustees Pat
Davis, Connie Haan and Prentice, along with former trustee and
library-board president Charles Carten, acted within the scope of their
authority during a nearly four-year-long dispute about whether Michael
was legally employed.

In addition, Asselmeier said, the library took the advice of its
insurance company and has withdrawn its appeal of unemployment benefits
that Michael has received.

"I am glad that the situation is over," Michael said this week. "I
don't think that everyone got what they wanted, but it is settled."

Asselmeier noted that the insurance company will make the settlement
payments and that the cost of just completing depositions on the case
would have exceeded the $14,000 settlement cost.

"There was no direct costs to the library to settle this," he said. "I
am happy that the library is unencumbered and we can now move forward."

"Now is the time for us to sit back, make some strategic goals and move
toward them," Asselmeier said. Among the goals are finding ways to
reduce health-insurance premiums for employees and researching ways to
deal with structural problems developing for the library building
because the former landfill it stands on continues to settle.

Michael said he now is exploring ways to reach his lifelong goal of
becoming a U.S. citizen after his H1B visa expired early this month. He
said he also will perform mascot duties again for the Southwest
Michigan Jaguars when the women's football team opens its season in
April.

"I have filed for visitor status so I can stay while I explore my
options," Michael said. "This is still my home, and my friends are
here. I just have to weigh my options."

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11262825&BRD=8&PAG=461&dept_id=482361&rfi=6

* Pat Davis, one of the township's representatives to the Charles A.
Ransom District Library's board, said library director David Michael is
unlikely to be able to satisfy immigration requirements for a more
permanent work visa. "We have identified 10 qualified U.S. citizens for
the position of library director," Davis said. "We think waiting for
the Michigan Department of Career Development to go through its search
is a waste of time and funds." She said the library board needed to
reopen the search for a new director and library board president Chuck
Carten had been notified of this.

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