Employment issue at foreign country (USA)
This is with reference to my employment with Lumen21 Inc. I joined Lumen21 Infoserv Pvt Ltd, CBD-Belapur, Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, India on 16th October 2012 as Senior Software QA Analyst. As my performance was good, company offered me USA opportunity. Even though I was working as Senior Software QA analyst in India office, company filed L1-A Visa for me which is getting only for Managerial position. I joined international office of the company Lumen21 Inc, Orange, California, United States of America (USA) on 20th April 2015 as a QA Manager and at client site of the company Molina Healthcare Inc. as TFS Build Manager. Company gave job opportunity to my wife Vaishali Gaikwad as well at the same client site in the same project. We both joined in the same team with different roles and responsibilities. The job profile therein was totally different than my previous profile as Senior Software QA Analyst in India office. I and my wife, we both worked hard and learned lots of new technical things, even though the assigned job profile was new for us. We always contributed our best knowledge in that field.
For first one year company CTO Raj Gupta was working with the team at client site and everything was good that time. Later on Raj Gupta discontinued coming to client site Molina Healthcare Inc. Thereafter we noticed that our supervisor Juan Figueroa started leaving office early at 3.00 pm every day. We were working till 6 pm everyday according to norms of the company. The other team members started following Juan Figueroa as he was our supervisor and most of the team started leaving early from office. This thing was observed by our client manager Mel Saligumba and asked us many times about supervisor Juan Figueroa and other team members as they were not present at the client location after 3 pm every day. We were not having any proper reason to give him every time.
After few days in Apr 2016, Lumen21 HR asked me and my wife to come at Orange office for some meeting. In that meeting Shalini Kumar – HR and Accounting Head was available along with HR Assistant Daniela Raschi. In the meeting, during discussion HR asked us about team feedback and any issues/concerns at client side. That time we highlighted the issue that everyday Lumen21 team along with Juan Figueroa is leaving early and client manager is always asks us about them. We raised this concern to HR as that thing was impacting our client project and the project was highly transparent and very important project for the company.
After this meeting as we raised this concern to HR, our supervisor Juan Figueroa started doing mental harassment of me and my wife. On 22-Apr-2016, our supervisor suddenly asked us to come in the meeting room and told this meeting is regarding your appraisal review. He started telling some negative points against us for which we were not agree. He didn’t use the word CAP. There were no evidences available against the points he discussed in the meeting. Juan Figueroa pressurized us to sign on the CAP letter without any evidences and prior warnings about our performances. Without any client feedback he blamed us that our performance is not as expected. In that meeting Juan Figueroa informed us that we will be under observation for next 30 days. Every Friday we will have feedback review meeting and after 30 days he will give final feedback about our performances. But nothing happened as informed. He neither scheduled any review meeting nor gave any feedback. After 15 days on 7th May 2016, I got copy of my CAP letter by mail which was incomplete without signature of Raj Gupta who was Next Higher Level Supervisor and his name was there on letter. My wife hasn’t received copy of her CAP letter till now. The CAP period finished after 30 days on 23rd May 2016. We were waiting for feedback from Juan Figueroa for few days, but there was no any response from his side. Later when I asked about feedback multiple times, he always replied “He hasn’t received any feedback from Raj Gupta yet”.
After few days Lumen21’s employees Annual Performance Reviews started. Other team members except me and my wife received their appraisal letters. When we asked about our appraisal letters to HR Manager Elie Boldizsar, she replied that first need to take supervisor’s feedback. On the next day supervisor Juan Figueroa and Elie Boldizsar again started with CAP meeting. We opposed that meeting as there was no feedback of our last CAP meeting. And as per their decision, we haven't received appraisal for the year 2015-2016.
In September 2016, we applied for vacation from 5-Dec-2016 to 30-Dec-2016 for India visit. Our leaves got approved from client as well as from our supervisor Juan Figueroa and Elie Boldizsar. We booked return flight tickets for our scheduled vacations, as per that 2-Dec-2016 was starting date from USA and 31-Dec-2016 was the return date from India.
On 7-Nov-2016, HR Elie suddenly called and asked us to come at Orange office for some discussion. In that meeting our supervisor Juan Figueroa and HR Elie Boldizsar informed us that because of budget issue our client Molina Healthcare Inc. want to cut down some headcounts from the team. Due to this reason Lumen21 decided to release me and my wife from TFS project and send us back to India. I have to join Lumen21 India office and work on my previous position. For my wife, there is no any position available in India office so company will relieve her from Lumen21 Inc. Our last working day with client Molina Healthcare Inc. will be 30-Nov-2016. Our flight tickets for India were already booked for 2-Dec-2016 as we were supposed to go on vacations. So everything was planned to send us back.
We had couple of discussion with HR Elie and supervisor Juan to retain our positions in United States but every time they gave us same reason of client budget issue. I was having 22 vacation leaves in my USA account which I earned during my tenure with Lumen21 Inc. I had discussion with HR Elie for my airfare reimbursement, leaves encashment and package in India office as had missed 3 consecutive appraisals. HR Elie gave me assurance that I will get reimbursement of Airfare and Leaves Encashment of my 22 vacation leaves at the time of full and final settlement. She told regarding my India position and package I need to talk with Vaishali Patil, Director at India office. I had discussion with Vaishali couple of times for my India position and package and she promised to send an email soon with revised package.
Everything was going well till 29-Nov-2016, then on 30-Nov-2016 I suddenly got an email from HR Elie saying company has transferred all my 22 leaves to India account so can utilise them after joining there. I got surprised with that email as Elie already assured me about leave encashment so called her to discuss about my leaves. Elie told she will discuss in the company and get back to me. I was expecting a call from HR for clarification on my leaves but didn't get any call/email so finally I called her in the evening to discuss about leaves. In that call HR was not having any clarification about my leaves, she got angry and started arguing with me. I told her in professional way if she is not having any clarification today about my leaves then I will come to Orange office tomorrow, we will have face to face discussion on this. Finally she accepted and asked me to come at Orange office for discussion. Then I called my supervisor Juan as he was supposed to come at our place to collect laptop and handover the final checks. But Juan also got angry with that thing and he simply disconnected the call. Our flight for India was already there on 2-Dec-2016 so only one day was there in between.
Then on 01-Dec-2016 morning, I got a call from HR saying your employment has been terminated from Lumen21 Inc, come to Orange office and collect your documents and final checks. I got shocked with that news and went office after sometime. After submitting laptop and all other things, HR gave me termination letter in which they mentioned company has terminated me because of the performance issue. I was not ready to accept that termination letter as there was no any issue with my performance. Every week we were sending our work status to the client. Client was happy with our work and there was no any escalation from client. Our performance was always good. Our supervisor with the help of HR always targeted me and my wife in unprofessional way without any valid things. He always did mental harassment of me and my wife. As he was direct supervisor of our team, but as per his role he always tried to demotivate us and never considered us as his team members. He was always biased and worked as groupism. There was no transparency in his work. As a supervisor whenever we required his help he was not available to resolve the issues. He was always coming late to office after 11 am and always leaving early at 3 pm, taking frequent leaves, not attending any client meetings and also not taking any internal team meeting. He was giving preferences to the people who were doing things in his favour. Whenever we tried to escalate the issues to higher management, my supervisor with the help of HR, pressurized us by sending threatening emails so that we can't raise any concern against him.
As our flight ticket for India was already booked for 2-Dec-2016 so was not having any other option than coming back to India. After coming India visited Lumen21 India office couple of times for our documents and my leave encashment and full and final settlement. We told whatever happened in USA to Vaishali Patil, India Director and HR team, they told will discuss with USA office and let us know but haven't received any update from them. When we visited India office for third time they asked us to talk with Lawyer hired by company for further proceedings.
While working with Molina Healthcare Inc. we received appreciation E-mails from HSS DLM Team Director and also from A.V.P. for doing good work for them. We are the experienced professional having more that 10 years of experience in IT industry. We are very well aware of professional ethics. We have already worked at many client places in India as well as in foreign countries. This is the first time we have faced so many issues at client site.