A company recently found itself in trouble after not accurately assessing the legal status of its employees.<\/p>\n
Business owners must balance carefully verifying new hires’ work eligibility with improperly terminating or disqualifying individuals who are work eligible, in compliance with federal law. A North Carolina company learned this lesson the hard way. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on November 29, 2012 that it had reached a settlement with Salisbury, N.C.-based Gamewell Mechanical Inc. resolving claims of discrimination in the termination of three of the company’s employees.<\/p>\n
Gamewell, a subsidiary of Woodfin Heating, Inc. which fabricates and installs heating and air conditioning systems, fired the employees after incorrectly assuming that they were undocumented foreign nationals. The three were actually U.S. citizens.<\/p>\n
Managers at Gamewell were acting on information that six of its other employees were undocumented foreign nationals. They believed that the three U.S. citizens were likewise unauthorized to work in the U.S. (more…)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A company recently found itself in trouble after not accurately assessing the legal status of its employees. Business owners must balance carefully verifying new hires’ work eligibility with improperly terminating or disqualifying individuals who are work eligible, in compliance with…<\/span><\/p>\n