Am I liable for what I KNOW?

[cja_]

I am a manager in an environment that has a history of employing many non-English speaking minorities. They are for the most part very hard working and productive and have presented assumedly valid green cards, soc. sec numbers and/or work visas. Recently I have come into a situation where my home office has rejected a few individuals paperwork, claimed they are completely invalid, that they are not legally employable in this country and that these persons must no longer be employed by the company. A few days later my boss had rehired these persons under different names and numbers (in addition, this being the third sets of invalid documentation). Am I at any legal risk because I KNOW the individuals I see before me cannot legally work in this country, and my superiors are allowing it to happen? Have my superiors broken any laws, and have I because of association?

 

[Beth3]

Yes, your boss has broken the law. The Immigration Reform and Control Act to be specific. He has hired individuals he knows are not authorized to work in this country. The boss is exposing the company to fines of up to $11,000 for each unauthorized individual he's hired plus possible criminal sanctions which may well be invoked since this is clearly a willful violation.

Since you had nothing to do with the re/hiring of these individuals, the INS very likely won't hold you accountable but your employer well may if they find out what's going on. They will undoubtedly be outraged at what the boss did (talk about willful misconduct!) and they may well be nearly as angry with you because you knew what was going on and did not notify the home office. If you don't want to get caught up in the net with the stuff hits the fan on this (as it almost certainly will at some point), then you will seriously want to consider contacting the appropriate person(s) at corporate and informing them of the sitaution.

Tough situation for you to be in but your boss put you there - and he's clearly an absolute idiot. I'd fire him in a heatbeat when I found out what he did.