1.5 SHRM-approved credit
By - Margie Faulk
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This program offers 1.5 SHRM-approved credits.
It’s no secret that President Donald Trump carrying out what he has called the largest mass deportation in U.S. history.
U.S. employers—particularly those in the manufacturing, food processing, agricultural, construction, and hospitality industries with a relatively unskilled workforce—should immediately prepare for ramped-up government immigration enforcement in the workplace. Employers should get ready to endure a painful process, a sudden loss of workers, and administrative and criminal penalties.
Many employers with a substantial nonprofessional workforce have accumulated workers who may be unauthorized to be in the U.S., whether they entered the country undocumented or overstayed. Employers have been required since 1986 to check the documents of new hires to confirm their identity and work authorization in completing Form I-9, but those documents are easily faked. A rising number of employers have opted or been required to use the government’s electronic E-Verify system, which performs real-time validation against governmental systems. However, readily available counterfeit documents embodying the stolen identities of real citizens or permanent residents will be validated in E-Verify.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has the authority to appear at a worksite with a notice of inspection and/or subpoena and demand that the employer produce the following within three days: historical lists of workers with dates of hire and termination, payroll and tax records, company ownership information, staffing vendor information, all I-9 forms required to be on file, and any copies of identity and authorization documents presented by employees. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will have an expanding national team to inspect these documents.
I-9 Audits: The ‘Silent Raid’
ICE sanctions are one problem that may arise from an audit, and these sanctions may be imposed for having incorrectly completed forms, for missing forms, and even for knowingly hiring unauthorized workers. Sanctions can range from $300 to $30,000 per worker, plus debarment from federal contracts, and are often disputed. Employers get 10 days to correct technical errors, but ICE takes an expansive view of what counts as substantive errors that can’t be corrected to avoid penalties. ICE can fine employers for failure to comply with extremely technical requirements for electronic storage of completed forms.
But even perfectly innocent employers face the risk of a sudden loss of workers following a government raid.
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Margie Faulk
Margie Faulk, PHR, SHRM-CP is a senior level human resources professional with over 14 years of HR management and compliance experience. A former Compliance Officer for Federal Defense Contracting Industry, Margie has worked as an HR and Compliance advisor for major corporations and small businesses in the small, large, private, public and Non-profit sectors. Margie is bilingual (Spanish) fluent and Bi-cultural. Margie’s focus is on multi-state, national, state and local workplace compliance. Additionally, Margie is working on International compliance initiatives globally which includes workplace compliance in other countries like the UK, Canada, France, Brazil, China, Africa, Mexico and India, just to name a few. Margie has created and presented seminars/webinars for many compliance institutes. These national training providers, offer compliance training to professionals, business owners and companies interested in having their company compliant with workplace and industry regulations. Margie holds professional human resources certification (PHR) from the HR Certification Institution (HRCI) and SHRM-CP certification from Society for Human Resources Management. Margie has completed the Certified Compliance and Ethics Professional training and is a member of the Society of Corporate Compliance & Ethics (SCCE).
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