What does 'indentured servants', the term used by US VP Vance for H-1B workers, mean. Indentured labour, a term used by US Vice President JD Vance for H-1B workers, referred to a system in which a person agreed to work for someone for a fixed period in exchange for something, such as passage to another country, food, shelter or the repayment of a debt. Indentured servitude was widespread in colonial America.