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Immigration Law in the Workplace - The Other Side of the Coin |
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by Ann Molloy
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Monday, 02 June 2008 |
 While your business is crossing its Ts and dotting its Is (and I-9s) in an attempt to comply with laws and regulations related to immigration, you must not forget about those other laws out there – the ones prohibiting discrimination in the workplace.
Imagine you are the President of ACME Siding. After hearing news reports about government crackdowns on and – especially – penalties for hiring undocumented workers, you issue a memo stating, “ACME Siding is committed to operating in a lawful manner and will cooperate with the government on the issue of immigration. Make sure we are following the law and be careful when hiring people who look like they crossed the border illegally.”
As we all know, there is a saying about “good intentions” and the road to hell. Pre-judging an individual’s eligibility to lawfully work in the United States based on observations about appearance, accent, skin color, and attire will get you pretty far down that road. If you turn away applicants or ask for paperwork ahead of time only from people who appear to be “foreign” you are discriminating on the basis of national origin – which is prohibited by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.
In a similar vein, if you rely upon your existing workforce as a source of referrals for new employees and you tell your workers that you would “really prefer folks who are U.S. citizens” you may be charged with discriminating on the basis of citizenship. Except in a few situations, when citizenship is required by law as a condition of employment, U.S. citizenship is not the appropriate question for screening candidates. Rather, you should be checking whether a candidate is legally authorized to work in the United States.
When handling questions of eligibility during the application process, you must treat all applicants equally. You must ask for verification documents from everyone and maintain properly completed I-9 forms for everyone. Likewise, you cannot insist on seeing specific documents (for example, a “green card”) only from certain groups when these applicants have already shown you valid documents that satisfy I-9 requirements. Any insistence on your part in seeing particular documents is called “document abuse” and is a prohibited, discriminatory practice.
For additional training related to Discrimination and Harassment in the Workplace, contact Ann Molloy of Encompass Resolution, LLC at 816.523.0896. |
