U.S. Citizen Laid Off but H1B Employees Were Retained

My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: NC
I have recently being laid off and H1B employees are retained. We pretty much do the same job. Please help if anything

"Pretty much do the same job" or they are going to be doing the exact same job you were previously doing? Is the job title, description or responsibilities different? What job field is this in?

The job title, description, and responsibilities are almost the same with slight changes. The field is in IT-QA. What they did was called a meeting months ago that they will repost all our jobs and let us re-apply. We were all interviewed and about 19 out of about 60 got laid off. Some of the once that are retained are on H1B. Any help?

Very likely not. There not only is no requirement that they give preference to US citizens, they would be in violation of discrimination laws if they used someone's visa status as the reason to retain/lay off.

There are a great many factors that go into deciding who to lay off and who to keep, but the difference between "the exact same job" and "pretty much the same job" can be the difference that matters. Employer can look at longevity, disciplinary records, reliability, what projects can be put aside or re-routed more easily than others, who can be trained in new duties and who cannot, and/or whose name was hit when they threw a dart at an employee list, but one factor they cannot use in making the decision is who is or is not on a work visa. That has to be taken right off the table along with age and gender and race and religion.

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Quoting cbg

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Very likely not. There not only is no requirement that they give preference to US citizens, they would be in violation of discrimination laws if they used someone's visa status as the reason to retain/lay off.

There are a great many factors that go into deciding who to lay off and who to keep, but the difference between "the exact same job" and "pretty much the same job" can be the difference that matters. Employer can look at longevity, disciplinary records, reliability, what projects can be put aside or re-routed more easily than others, who can be trained in new duties and who cannot, and/or whose name was hit when they threw a dart at an employee list, but one factor they cannot use in making the decision is who is or is not on a work visa. That has to be taken right off the table along with age and gender and race and religion.

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I thought that one of the requirements for an employer to arrange an H1B Visa for an employee is that they must have unique skills that could not be found in an applicant with US citizenship or permanent residency? Have I remembered that wrong?

That's before they get here. Once they're here, they've got the exact same protections as any other worker. That includes protection from discrimination on the basis of national origin.

But the H1B visa is not transferable from one job to another. So if they are here and they don't have a job that provided them an H1B they aren't legal to work. So, no discrimination.

There are at least three bills in the Senate now that would make it harder to replace US Citizens with H1B visa employees.

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Quoting cbg

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That's before they get here. Once they're here, they've got the exact same protections as any other worker. That includes protection from discrimination on the basis of national origin.

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Ok, that makes sense, but it appears that everyone was laid off and had to reapply for their jobs. So, isn't that a new hire and therefore the new hire procedures apply in regards to an H1B Visa?

No one is being replaced by an H1B visa employee. The visa'd employee is already here and already working. Out of 60 employees, 19 were laid off. Of the remaining number, some have work visas.

That is legal. I've been through this, asked the questions, gotten the t-shirt. It would be a violation of the discrimination laws protected national origin to choose someone for layoff solely because they are here on an H1B visa. Our poster wants us to tell her that all the H1B visas have to be laid off first and all the US citizens retained. That is simply not the case.