labor lawAdivision of labor law center

The U.S. Citizenship and immigration Services or USCIS has given employers  a few more weeks to start using the new I-9 form.

Effective April 3, 2009 every U.S. employer will be required to use a revised version of the employment eligibility verification form – more familiarly known as the I-9 form.

According to an interim rule that was published by the USCIS in December, 2008, employers were required to begin using the form on February 2, 2009. That deadline has now been delayed by 60 days.

According to unnamed sources at the USCIS, the delay will provide adequate time to complete a full review of the new form and the employment verification requirements. A notice of the delay will appear in the Federal Register.

Employers are invited to comment on the new rule for 30 days, until March 4, 2009.

A number of employment law and regulatory deadlines set in the last few months of the Bush Administration have been postponed (more…)

Ex-convicts and others with criminal convictions are the subject of a new workplace poster in New York State.

The poster outlines what is known as Article 23 A of the New York Correction Law. The article, signed into law by New York’s Governor David Paterson, outlines the law as it applies to hiring of people with criminal records.

Under the law, New York employers are legally allowed to consider the conviction of a job-hunter as a negative issue when deciding on hiring, provided the crime the candidate was convicted for relates directly to the job or the license sought.

However, if the crime does not directly relate to the job, the employer cannot consider it during the hiring process. The new law makes it illegal discrimination to do so.

As an example, if an accountant had been convicted of embezzling from the bank in which he worked, another bank need not hire him. On the other hand, if this same accountant had been convicted, not of embezzlement, but of selling drugs, under the new law the employer is not permitted to consider that conviction when making a hiring decision.

Whenever an applicant with a criminal record is refused a job, the employer (more…)

Federal contractors have been given a few more weeks to purchase required supplies and comply with the new E-Verify regulations.

The U.S. Department of Justice recently announced that the deadline has been moved back from January 15, 2009 to February 20, 2009.

This temporary postponement was made to accommodate employers after several business groups, including SHRM, the Society of Human Resource Management and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce objected to the new regulations.

Indications are that the Department of Justice will be strictly enforcing the new regulations, so employers would be wise to have all supplies on hand and implement E-Verify prior to the deadline. This will permit employers to work out any problems with their program, ahead of the deadline. 

The new E-Verify regulations implement an executive order issued by President George W. Bush in June 2008. Under the new regulations, federal contractors must use an electronic system such as E-Verify to ascertain that new employees working on federal contracts are legally permitted to work in the U.S.

E-verify is a joint venture between the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration to confirm the legal work status of new employees. The program is free for any employer to use.

One of the more controversial portions of the rule would require federal contractors to ascertain the legal work and immigration status of existing employees, working on some sensitive federal projects.

The new regulations require that the government cannot enter into a contract with a company that refuses to check the employees legal work status with E-Verify. However, the rule is not retroactive – it applies only to contracts signed after the new effective date of February 20, 2009.

The new E-Verify regulation, or a similar version, will probably prevail although it has been challenged in court by SHRM. “SHRM supports the use of an electronic employment verification system but E-Verify is far from ready to be mandated on all employers,” said attorney Nancy Hammer. She is the Manager of Regulatory and Judicial Affairs for SHRM. “We are pleased with the Justice Department’s decision to delay the effective date. We want to avoid the problems and confusion that will result if the rules go into effect before the court has a chance to evaluate their legality.”

Both parties must file final motions and briefs on the case in the U.S. District Court in Maryland by February 11, 2009.

Meanwhile, employers can get a jump on this deadline, by implementing E-Verify now. A number of states already require that every employer use E-Verify, while others only recommend it.