Legal Question in Immigration Law in New York

Re: unfair labor practice

Not sure what your specific question is but if you are doing your I-9 compliance procedures correctly, the fact that you are requesting certain documentation from your newly-hired employees should not be viewed as an unfair labor practice. The immigration law does have anti-discrimination provisions related to citizenship and national origin of workers which should be closely adhered to, but they would not apply to employers that take proper steps toward I-9 document verification procedures.

If you have not been maintaining I-9 forms properly and your company is selected for an I-9 audit, it may be facing civil and criminal penalties and any issues with the existing or fledgling union are likely to be secondary to the legal exposure under the immigration laws. Note, incidentally, that compliance with I-9 verification does not absolve employers from liability for knowingly employing workers without the legal right to be employed in the U.S.

I-9 forms must be completed for each employee, citizen and non-citizen, within the first three days of employment and using the official lists of supporting documents. The employees who fail to produce legally required documentation should not be continued to be employed and may generally be terminated. I-9 forms should be retained for 3 years after the date of hire or for 1 year following the date of termination, whichever is later. They should be stored separately from other HR records.

If you are missing some I-9 forms for certain employees, the way you go about collecting them now should be carefully thought out because of potential legal exposure. If your company requires legal representation in this area of law, feel free to call my offices.

The above reply is in the nature of general information, is not legal advice and should not be relied on as such.