Ruling reinstates doctor fired for backing foreign colleagues

The Dept. of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Fargo, N.D., must reinstate, with back pay, a physician who said he was fired for speaking out about pay discrimination against H1-B visa doctors.

The physician at the center of the case hopes the decision from the U.S. Dept. of Labor in January will have far-reaching implications for foreign-born physicians practicing in the United States.

"What this has done is told the entire VA system they can't discriminate on the basis of pay and get away with it. They are expected to behave like any other employer," said Rudranath Talukdar, MD, the internist who brought the action.

Dr. Talukdar, who now works in Houston, was terminated in 2002 after participating in a federal investigation into whether the VAMC was underpaying doctors in the visa program. As a result of the audit, the Wage and Hour Division of the Labor Dept. ordered the hospital to pay more than $200,000 in back wages to several doctors, court documents show.

The H1-B visa program allows employers to hire nonimmigrant, noncitizen doctors on a temporary basis. But employees must be paid the same as a U.S. citizen. The federal law also protects foreign-born doctors from retaliation under whistle-blower provisions.

Psychiatrist Harjinder K. Virdee, MD, who also was fired after assisting in the government investigation but later settled with the VAMC, said the underpayment problem is widespread but that many doctors fear losing their jobs if they speak out. "This is a precedent now for foreign doctors," she said.

Peggy Wheelden, a spokeswoman for the Fargo VAMC, said the hospital is pleased with the resolution and is complying with the terms of the order. "We remain dedicated to following [Equal Employment Opportunity] laws and principles," she said. She declined to comment further on the case.

The hospital had argued in court papers that the doctors were let go for budgetary reasons.