I-9 compliance and employment eligibility is a paramount issue for employers today and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will continue to discipline violators who knowingly and unknowingly hire illegal workers and violate employment eligibility laws.
News last week that executives of 11 McDonalds franchises in Nevada (see article here) were arrested and fined for hiring illegal workers makes the point that it's not just hourly employees who are targeted in immigration and employment eligibility workplace sweeps. More and more individuals in the supervisory chain are being arrested by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents for I-9 employment eligibility violations.
According to the Department of Homeland Security (http://www.dhs.gov) there have been 937 criminal arrests in worksite cases of I-9 compliance violations this year, and 99 were in the company’s supervisory chain. Employment eligibility should be every employer's primary concern this year.
"It often takes time to build a criminal case against an employer, but the charges and penalties will likely be more serious as a result,” writes DHS Director Michael Chertoff in the online Leadership Journal.
Executives take note on Form I-9 compliance and employment eligibility:
If your company has a large chain of command from top to bottom and you are unaware of who you are hiring, you must take a new approach to monitoring employment eligibility. Don't leave all the decision making up to your HR personnel and ensure there are administrative procedures in place to verify employment eligibility documentation (Form I-9) collaboratively with the government's E-Verify program. Automating this task will help reduce risk and take the employment eligibility administrative nightmare away from your HR staff.
Visit http://www.i-9compliance.com/ to fill out a request for information and download the free white paper: 15 Facts Everyone Should Know About I-9 Compliance.
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by dbryant
7/17/2008 1:07:00 PM
A story featured in the L.A. Times (July 16, 2008) should be a wake up call to all employers who do not conduct background checks on current employees.
Sixteen employees were suspended from Martin Luther King Jr. – Harbor hospital when county officials found they had serious criminal histories. The criminal backgrounds were discovered last year, but the employees were not disciplined or relieved from duty by the hospital.
This leaves a serious question to be answered by employers, particularly those who have employees working closely with the community. Background checks need to be conducted before hire and periodically throughout employment. Failure to do so could cause harm to other employees and customers…and the bad publicity could result in the demise of your organization.
Click here to read our full article on current background check issues...
We welcome relevant comments, questions or suggestions from HR professionals, consumers and experts. All comments are reviewed before posting.
*We welcome relevant comments and questions from consumers, experts, and human resources professionals. Please do not submit comments with advertisements as they will not be posted publicly. Thanks for visiting our blog!