I-9 Notices of Inspection, ICE’s Third Round
This is ICE’s third round of immigration audits within the last year. The first round occurred on July 1, 2009, when ICE issued Notices of Inspection to 652 businesses. The second round of immigration audits occurred on November 19, 2009, affecting an additional 1,000 businesses nationwide.
W. Garnett & Associates
Human Capital Management
1-888-884-3910
Know the Rules Around Form I-9 Compliance
For each employee, an I-9 form must be completed within three days of the hiring date and held on file by the hiring company. If the employee is unable to furnish the needed documents, then he or she can be terminated. On the I-9 form there is a List A, which are documents that can establish both identity and authorization to work in the U.S. The employee only needs to furnish one of these items. If no items from List A are available, then one item from List B, which establishes identity only, and one item from List C, which establishes employment eligibility, must be provided.
W. Garnett & Associates
Human Capital Management
1-888-884-3910
A Boulder, CO Representative Wants to Penalize Employers
That’s why Rep. Claire Levy, D-Boulder, introduced a measure into the Colorado Legislature this session that would implement a new provision in discrimination cases tried in state courts that could leave small businesses liable for compensatory and punitive damages should they lose.
W. Garnett & Associates
Human Capital Management
1-888-884-3910
Husk Energy Failure to Pay the Required Minimum Wage and Overtime
Just last week the U.S. Department of Labor announced that Husk Energy, a petroleum refinery in Lima, Ohio, agreed to pay nearly $1,000,000 in back wages after an investigation by the Department of Labor in which it was found that its employees were not being paid overtime compensation.
W. Garnett & Associates
Human Capital Management
1-888-884-3910
$450,000 Fine Hits Landscape Company
According to the news release, 
Peach Tree Maintenance Inc. employed a combination of foreign and local workers. Twenty-four employees were hired under the federal H-2B “nonimmigrant program that permits employers to hire foreign workers to meet a temporary need for nonprofessional, nonagricultural skills.”
W. Garnett & Associates
Human Capital Management
1-888-884-3910
Common Mistakes and Avoiding FLSA Compliance
For some reason, many employers unwittingly run afoul of the FLSA just by carrying out what they deem to be commonsensical approaches to managing their employees. Need an employee to stay an extra hour or two so you promise that person equal “comp” time off, forget it—you’ve probably just committed wage theft by not paying overtime. Let’s examine some common mistakes like this one that employers make.
W. Garnett & Associates
Human Capital Management
1-888-884-3910
Steps Employers Can Take to Avoid Liability
Well-intentioned employers often find inadvertent paperwork errors or technical violations during their internal audits; some seemingly harmless errors and omissions are actually considered substantive violations that carry significant fines. For example, the failure of an employer to ensure that an individual employee checks the Form I-9’s box for “citizen,” “lawful permanent resident,” or “authorized to work until a specified date” is a substantive violation.
W. Garnett & Associates
Human Capital Management
1-888-884-3910
Administrative Employees vs. The Administrative Exemption
In fact, the administrative exemption only applies to a narrow group of employees – those whose primary duty is the performance of office or non-manual work directly related to the management or general business operations of the employer or the employer’s customers, and which includes the exercise of discretion and independent judgment with respect to matters of significance.
W. Garnett & Associates
Human Capital Management
1-888-884-3910
Southern Companies Under ICE Inspection Notice
There is no doubt that ICE is making a renewed effort to focus on holding employers accountable for their hiring practices. We expect more NOIs to be issued in the near future. We encourage employers to conduct internal I-9 audits and put their internal immigration compliance programs in order.
W. Garnett & Associates
Human Capital Management
1-888-884-3910
Goodbye Cake or Just Plain Goodbye?
Maybe you’re going to a competitor or maybe the boss is annoyed you’re leaving. Or maybe the company doesn’t want you hanging around reminding everyone you’re heading to something bigger and better. Whatever the reason, the company can send you out the door with nary a penny more than what you had earned up to that point with one exception — if you have a contract.
W. Garnett & Associates
Human Capital Management
1-888-884-3910
Outsourcing Gives Small Businesses Practical HR Options
When times get tough the tough get swamped. Even in good times small-business owners shoulder multiple responsibilities. Concentrating on the revenue-producing and operational side of things is even harder when the economy turns down and there are fewer employees to share the burden.
W. Garnett & Associates
Human Capital Management
1-888-884-3910
Cincinnati Firm Fined After Worksite Investigation
Employers are required to complete and retain a Form I-9 for each individual they hire for employment in the United States. This form requires employers to review and record the individual’s identity document(s) and determine whether the document(s) reasonably appear to be genuine and related to the individual. The fine relates to I-9 violations at Koch’s Fairfield, Ohio, facility. The company has cooperated with ICE in the investigation employing the use of E-Verify and ensuring that its policies and procedures are in compliance with legal requirements.
W. Garnett & Associates
Human Capital Management
1-888-884-3910
ICE Sending Chills Down Spines of U.S. Employers
On July 1, 2009 – just before the long hot Fourth of July holiday weekend – the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ( ICE) sent chills up the spines of many U.S. employers by issuing Notices of Inspection (NOIs) to 652 businesses nationwide to determine whether or not they were complying with Employment Eligibility Verification (I-9) Form regulations.
W. Garnett & Associates
Human Capital Management
1-888-884-3910
Keeping the Department of Labor Off Your Doorstep
The report surveyed more than 4,000 workers in three cities and concluded “employment and labor laws are regularly and systematically violated,” with 1.1 million workers having at least one pay-based violation per week. The study concluded that front-line workers lose more than $56.4 million per week in underpaid wages. Claiming violations in virtually every major urban industry, the report found.
W. Garnett & Associates
Human Capital Management
1-888-884-3910
Crackdown on Employee Misclassification
As part of its stepped-up enforcement of workplace laws, the Obama administration plans to crack down on companies that treat workers as independent contractors when their job duties are similar to those of an employee.
W. Garnett & Associates
Human Capital Management
1-888-884-3910
ICE Gets Paid After Massive I-9 Audit
On February 8th, ICE fined Koch Foods over half a million dollars for employing more than 160 undocumented workers at their poultry processing plant near Cincinnati. The company paid the fine on February 9th – one day later. Most people don’t have a cool $536,046 on hand to cope with that kind of sudden expense (although that would be nice). The average employer would more likely be facing bankruptcy.
W. Garnett & Associates
Human Capital Management
1-888-884-3910
5 Tips to Help I-9 Compliance
By now, you know that the U.S. government has been performing widespread investigations and audits of employers to crack down on employment of undocumented noncitizens. You should also be aware that you must maintain Form I-9, an employment authorization verification form issued by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS), for all your workers.
W. Garnett & Assocites
Human Capital Management
1-888-884-3910
States Unpaid Overtime Laws
According to a federal law known as the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), non-exempt employees are entitled to overtime pay for hours worked over 40 in a single workweek. However, some states have their own regulations regarding minimum wage, overtime pay, employer record keeping, meal and rest breaks, and other labor issues. IQ Overtime’s Directory of State Overtime Laws includes information on wage and hour laws in all 50 states. A frequently asked questions section is also included on each state’s overtime law page in order to address some of the common concerns that workers have regarding overtime pay.
W. Garnett & Associates
Human Capital Management
1-888-884-3910
Why Managers Delay Employee Appraisal
I am a senior supervisor who served under five different managers in our 20-year-old company. All of these managers have the same bad habit of delaying my annual appraisal that adversely affected the release of my merit increase. I’ve already brought the matter to our human resource manager who appeared inutile in correcting this problem judging from the complaints of other employees. I know that they’re reading your column so I’d like to publish this so that they can do something about it.
W. Garnett & Associates
Human Capital Management
1-888-884-3910
Sexual Harassment Liability, Seven Steps to Avoid
The United States Supreme Courts landmark 1998 decision makes clear that employers preventive and remedial actions are crucial to the question of liability,” says business-training expert Myron Curry, president of BusinessTrainingMedia.com. The decision says the purpose of sexual harassment laws is not for courts to intervene between employers and employees, but rather to encourage employers to themselves take steps to prevent sexual harassment and remedy it if it occurs.” Curry suggests that if employers take these seven simple actions, they can greatly reduce their organizations sexual harassment liability exposure.
W. Garnett & Associate
Human Capital Management
1-888-884-3910
