Lawyers ready clients for new work rules

By: Hilary Potkewitz
August 10. 2007 1:18PM



Lawyers are scurrying to help companies comply with tough federal rules announced Friday cracking down on employers who hire illegal immigrants.

The Bush administration implemented a number of regulations pertaining to border security and the apprehension of alien fugitives, but the biggest change gives employers 90 days to resolve questions regarding a worker’s legal status. The move, anticipated for weeks, targets the use of fake social security numbers and increases penalties on companies that knowingly employ illegal immigrants. The regulations hike penalties by 25% to as much as $10,000 per incident.

“All lawyers that practice in the employment field have been keeping track of this,” said Thomas Wassel, a partner at Cullen and Dykman who represents employers. “We’re preparing our clients and urging them to get in compliance.”

In New York, the rules will hit the restaurant, home health care and construction sectors hard, since all rely heavily on immigrants to fill their ranks.

Job candidates have been required since 1986 to provide proof of eligibility to work in this country. But it can often take weeks for the Social Security Administration to identify problems, and by then candidates have already started working.

“These things often come to light months later, and the employees are then confronted, with mixed outcomes,” said Stephen Zweig, a partner at Ford & Harrison who represents home health care agencies. “The employer is stuck between a rock and a hard place: You can’t refuse to pay people who’ve done work for you, but you aren’t allowed to pay people who aren’t legal,” he said.

The new regulations are expected to wreak havoc on health care companies, which employ large numbers of immigrant workers.

“It will create huge problems for employers who have difficulty finding employees,” said Mr. Zweig. “It’s another level of constraint in an industry where there is more demand then there is supply of homecare workers,” he said.

Bravo...may this be the end of the trend of subsidizing paychecks with tips to meet minimum wages.

Here comes BIG BROTHER


Federal Crackdown On Illegals Sparks Panic In Restaurant Workers



The Bush administration wants to press forward with a crackdown on illegal immigrants – a crackdown that could disrupt one of the pillars of the city's economy and make things a bit dicey the next time you want to go out to dinner. NY1’s Rebecca Spitz explains in the following report.

A letter from the Department of Homeland Security is sending waves of panic through the city restaurant industry. It warns employers they'll face serious penalties if they do not do everything they can to make sure the workers they're hiring are legal.

Here in New York City, activists estimate 40 percent of restaurant workers are not legal.

"If you are now creating these additional burdens for employers to hire people and additional burdens for workers to be able to work, you're creating a system where workers can't stay working in restaurants, the industry's just not going to survive without them," says Restaurant Opportunities Center Executive Director Saru Jayaraman.

Right now, when a worker's Social Security number doesn't match his name on tax or other documents, the federal government sends employers a "no-match" letter.

A newly-proposed federal regulation tells businesses they will be held accountable if they ignore that letter and fail to resolve the discrepancy within 90 days.

Department of Homeland Security says the measures will help them crack down on employers who knowingly hire illegal workers.

But the National Restaurant Association says while it expected increased enforcement, this is the wrong way to go about it, saying:

"We are concerned that the new regulations will result in employers in numerous industries having to let workers go as the economy is facing an increasingly tight labor market."

That's also a concern for business advocates like Kathryn Wylde.

"There are more than eight million undocumented workers in the United States today earning over $500 billion a year and paying taxes on it, they're on payrolls,” says Wylde. “This will disappear if the no-match program goes through because what it will do is force employers to fire eight million workers and we don't have anyone to replace them at $7 an hour.”

That includes people like Gabriel, a 24-year-old college student, who has been working in the same restaurant in Queens for seven years. He's spent more than half his life in New York, but is not in the country legally.

"It’s just hard. A lot of my friends, people, family members – we all work in the same conditions," says Gabriel.

But they’re conditions the restaurant industry has come to rely on.

– Rebecca Spitz

brilliant plan...............................now employers will not send any tax forms at all....................................

Of course.

So, what's next? Surprise DOH-style 'raids' on every kitchen in town?

hahhahhaa
well i guess they won't have much choice

seeing as: despite all this "crackdown" and "panic" and whatnot

there's at least one "illegal" mexican i know
who just got a raise.

Great, 'cos he's gonna need it - to help support his new waitress "wife".

LOL.

ee hee heee
i predict a sudden surge in the "kitchenware/cutlery" section of the Bloomie's Bridal registry.

or maybe we should all buy stock in Williams&Sonoma !!

Give your Mexican friend a word of marital advice - Make sure he signs a pre-nup, in case he becomes the next Jean-George, and no matter what, don't make her the Director of Operations.

LOL.

oh but speaking of jean-georges

maybe all "hot" restaurateurs should start doing like him (and jonathan-morr) and just open in mexico city instead !!

THAT'LL LEARN 'EM.

Wait till they get a load of the labor force down there............consistancy?............what's that