Illegal Workers to Enforce Labor Laws?
As the government threatens a crackdown against employers who hire illegal immigrants, companies should also be wary of potential amped-up enforcement of labor law violations by another group—illegal immigrants themselves.
If they are fired from their jobs because of federal enforcement of immigration laws, they will have less to lose by complaining about illegal labor practices by their now-former employers. And some illegal immigrants are already doing just that, the Chicago Tribune reports.
“Maybe we won’t win, but at least they’ll see that even if we don’t have papers, we won’t stay quiet,” one recently fired worker shouted at a recent Chicago demonstration. Among his listeners: fellow plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit filed this week. It alleges that a group of doughnut franchise owners failed to pay required overtime and committed other labor violations.
Another ABAJournal.com post today discusses the expected federal crackdown on companies that hire illegal immigrants.
