No Match guidelines issued by Homeland Security

Source: Construction Digital

Date :8/27/2007 11:15:38 AM

New “no match” guidelines for contractors whose workers provide inaccurate employment information were recently issued by the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security.

“These new regulations could make it harder for contractors who use unskilled, low-wage non-union labor to plead ignorance as to their employees’ immigration status,” according to Bob White, the National Electrical Contractors Association’s (NECA) executive director of government affairs.

The new policies are an attempt by the federal agency to implement employment reforms originally slated as part of immigration reforms proposed by the Bush Administration."Until Congress chooses to act, we're going to be taking some energetic steps of our own," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says in his announcement of the new policies.

NECA opposed the proposed immigration legislation, which Congress subsequently failed to pass. The position in opposition was taken primarily because the legislation failed to specifically protect contractors from the employment practices of subcontractors. “Vicarious liability would have held NECA members liable for practices over which they have no control or authority to investigate,” White stats.

White says that the new Homeland Security rules don’t create vicarious liability, but do imply a flow-through requirement to subcontractors for use of electronic verification on federal jobs. “The language is somewhat ambiguous,” White says. “There is no penalty or liability attached for subcontractor hiring practices under these rules, and it does not apply in all cases. A more definitive explanation will likely be forthcoming.”

"No Match" letters are sent to employers once a year by the Social Security Administration if the employer's batch of W-2s has 10 or more errors in the information given. Under the new "no match" policy, the Department of Homeland Security will use these as evidence of constructive knowledge of hiring an illegal alien, unless the employer acts in a specified manner to correct the problems. However, the DHS does not have access to the "no match" list, so it will not be able to take direct action based on it.