need help: discrimination and abuse at work

[kabulsun]

i am writing to seek your assistance and advice regarding a grievance I wish to raise regarding my employment. i am an employee of a US based organisation based in locally recruited in Afghanistan. i do not wish to seek legal redressing of the grievances in Afghanistan due to inefficiency of the legal system. I would like to see if it is possible to take legal action against the organisation in the US, since it is a US based organisation, under the international law. As i will explain below my employer is in explicit violation of international conventions and standards of US and Afghan labour law.

This action is being considered with regard to the following circumstances:

• Hours of work: I work from 08:00 to 17:00, Saturday to Thursday, six days a week, a total of over 48 hours a week. The international standards, US and Afghan law state that ordinary working hours can not be more than 40 hours per week, on average, during the course of the year.

• Discrimination of employee treatment – my employer discriminates between Afghan and expatriate employees in regard to salary scale and allowances to the staff, work environment, HR procedures, food and officespace preferences, security treatment and access to the workspace, and providing the social protection.

• Notification to terminate a job Contract is legally required to be one month while MY EMPLOYER can dismiss the employee the next day.

• Break and Paid Leave - the employees are not entitled to national holidays and discrimination in work break. Afghan staff does not get to have all national and religious days off. Expatriates get two week off every two months to rest and travel abroad on the company expenses while the same doesn't apply to Afghans.

I am subject to the above abuses but I would like to seek improvement which would go behind my personal benefit. MY EMPLOYER is reluctant to do that; the organisation is structured in Afghanistan to benefit by abusing international, US and afghan laws. A few of the issues above were raise but the HR has not responded. i need the job but MY EMPLOYER need to improve their standards, i fear if i raise the issues at a serious level, i might get fired. I do not wish to get fired for what would be perceived as non-compliance with company policy. However, I am happy to lose my job if I could bring some improvements for other colleagues. MY EMPLOYER is a recipient of Federal funding through USAID. Many US generally applicable employment laws, such as the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Occupational Safety and Health Act, apply to federal contractors. In addition, there are a number of federal laws that apply only to federal contractors. Can i seek legal redressing under laws applying to federal contractors.