Invalid SSN's
JodiSD
4 Posts
I just started at a company that has had little or no HR in place for two years and I've been "cleaning house". None of the I-9's have ever been completed correctly so I'm doing a mass I-9 makeover in hopes that the INS will see that we've made a good faith effort to fix our files. My question is that we have many employees without a valid SSN. We've received notification from the SSA that they don't match, but our employees won't go there to try and fix it because we've heard "through the grapevine", that they know they're not valid. What can I do? Is it illegal to terminate them (they've been given ample time to provide legal documentation) or do we keep them on? I have been to the INS & SSA websites and cannot get a straightforward answer. Please help! Thanks.
Comments
I have run into this problem before and have terminated individuals for not providing the corrected information.
The thirty days I am talking about is when you receive the list from SSA each year that shows the social security numbers that do not match their records.
Once the individual is out the door, you will have done all you can do. I have contacted the INS to inform of the location of illegals and they remain in the area. In fact, I have one that I would bet is the same hispanic we terminated a year earlier, but I am the only one who remembers the face and his smile. His papers looked good and they do not match our records; he has been a model employee, like he was a year ago and then went back to Mexico so he said.
Unfortunately, for us the individual will buy a new SS number and be on my door step ready to fill out yet another bad application. I, of course, am faced with the need for good migrant workers with proper ID (which looks good to me)that I should not check before we offer a position and put the individual to work. Immediately after enrolling the individual they are now asking for assistance in applying for a change in status, which once they ask for assistance we are obligated under our employee assistance possibility to submit the application and the individual becomes protected by national origin and INS/DOL laws.
Bottom line is don't hesitate to terminate an employee with bad information as long as you have found out the information before they ask for the change of status application. My thoughts, Pork
If after 30 days the employee has not corrected, it is usually because they are not legal to work in the US. If they have not corrected by the 30 days, we do terminate.
It sounds like you found a resolution to your problem. We had the same situation here. Then we had a visit from the INS to audit our paperwork. We ended up losing 39 people, although peacefully and without anyone being taken into custody. Now, when people apply and they present me with false ID I tell them, "The INS has visited us several times and I don't think you want the stress of working here if your ID isn't valid. We don't want you to have any trouble working here and we don't want to cause any problems for our current employees." Most people understand, take their fake ID and leave. You can write to me at [email]lruskanen@ankmar.com[/email] if you have any questions on how we handled the situation.