An internally circulated email cleared that employees would not be punished for participating in the pro-immigration, including the H-1B program, protest.
Facebook has told its employees that it would not penalize them for participating in the nationwide protest on May 1 against Trump administration’s immigration-related policy changes. In an internal communication via email, the company said that it supports its employees’ rights to protest.
“At Facebook, we’re committed to fostering an inclusive workplace where employees feel comfortable expressing their opinions and speaking up,” a spokesman wrote in an emailed statement, Bloomberg reported. “We support our people in recognizing International Worker’s Day and other efforts to raise awareness for safe and equitable employment conditions.”
The company said that it would allow time to the participating employees even if they do not inform the company ahead of time. Furthermore, it would investigate, thoroughly, if any of its vendor does not follow the company’s policy of protecting its employees’ right to protect themselves.
“It’s important not just to the engineers and H-1B holders that are traditionally thought of as the immigrants in tech but also to folks who are subcontracted but work side-by-side on those companies,” the co-founder of Silicon Valley Rising, Derecka Mehrens said. “Immigrants play a critical role in the tech sector – both as engineers and coders but also in keeping tech campuses running smoothly.”
Trump has proposed several changes in the immigration and H-1B programs. However, so far nothing has changed in paper. But sources tell that the administration is serious in curbing rules to make it harder for immigrants to use or abuse the US laws. Several Indian companies including the TCS and Infosys are feeling the heat of the new administration’s view toward immigrants and immigrant workers.
The proponents of Trump’s policies hail every step that the president takes to push back immigrants. They say that the US visa policies are too soft and are often abused. Immigrants, on the other hand, feel that America has always been a country of immigrants, and anti-immigrant policies are un-American, to say the least.