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Training, training, training…It’s the first step towards compliance, and the government agrees. A pizza restaurant franchisee with dozens of locations in Miami, Florida was slammed with $140,000 in fines and an order to train Human Resources personnel on corporate immigration compliance for their anti-discriminatory hiring practices, as well as ongoing government oversight.
Pizzerias, LLC (Pizzerias) was violating discrimination laws by requesting specific documents from certain employees and not others. Specifically, Pizzerias was requesting permanent resident cards from non-citizen workers to prove their work authorization, but not requiring the same specific document restraints on their U.S. citizen workers. New hires may prove their work authorization by providing any valid document from List A or List C.
This is a typical form of discrimination, and has gotten many other companies in trouble recently. Just a couple of examples; both Nebraska Beef and Abercrombie and Fitch, with robust human resources offices, had been committing the same discriminatory practices because their personnel lacked training.
We reported in January of this year that new Federal regulations have reorganized the DOJ’s Office of Special Counsel (now called Immigrant and Employee Rights Section) and clarified their stance on the only defense to discriminatory practices in the hiring process, which is to not discriminate.
Non-compliance is not worth the risk to your business. To avoid discriminatory practices and to start complying with immigration regulations now, you should train anyone who touches the I-9 process. The Corporate Immigration Compliance Institute offers a variety of valuable training options, both through online webinars and in-person.
Danielle Atchison, Business Immigration Attorney MDIVANI CORPORATE IMMIGRATION LAW FIRM 7007 College Blvd., # 460, Overland Park, KS 66211 USA Phone :: 913.317.6200 Email :: DAtchison@uslegalimmigration.com