Immigrant & Nonstandard Worker Project Policy Updates

Policy Updates

NELP's Immigrant & Nonstandard Worker Project regularly issues Policy Updates on a monthly basis. The goal of the policy updates is to identify trends and advocacy issues affecting low-wage immigrant workers. Since our desire is to provide updates that are useful and informative to all of you, we welcome any suggestions for issues we should address in our upcoming pieces.

Recent Policy Updates

Combating Independent Contractor Misclassification in the States: Models for Legislative Reform. Employer misclassification of employees as “independent contractors” in many sectors has arisen as a top priority in several states in 2005.    This Policy Update is a summary compilation of some of the “best practices” for combating independent contractor abuses in existing state law, with some proposed legislative provisions and supporting language, where available. (Dec. 2005)

Post-Katrina: Companies Are Responsible For Workers They Recruit To Perform Clean-Up And Rebuilding.    States have an interest in ensuring that unscrupulous corporations that have received FEMA funding are not able to lure vulnerable workers from other states and then leave them without money or a place to live.  Some contractors are not withholding taxes from workers’ pay, depriving the workers of benefits and the states of payroll tax revenues.  Not only is this exploitation and abuse of the workers, it leaves the destination states and towns with the additional burden of assisting the workers who have no money and no home and dealing with local tensions that arise from their presence. This fact sheet identifies some strategies for holding companies responsible.  (Oct. 2005)

New Federal Overtime Rules Create Opportunities in the States. The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) new overtime rules make it easier for employers to exempt workers from requirement to pay “time and a half” for overtime hours. This policy update describes the analogous overtime rules in the 50 states, and suggests opportunities to protect overtime rights for lower-income working families at the state level. (December 2004)

Immigrant Worker Safety and Health: The Need for Meaningful Legal Protections.   Recently there has been a great deal of attention paid to the disproportionately high levels of workplace injuries and fatalities among immigrant workers.  While increased public acknowledgement of this serious and growing problem is an important first step, government agencies must work to ensure that immigrant workers have meaningful protection under the workplace safety and health laws regardless of immigration status. (August 2004)

Driver’s License Policies and Proposals Impacting Immigrants.  All over the country, millions of hard-working immigrants need to be able to drive to get to work, to take their children to school, to buy groceries and to access medical care.  Recent state developments in driver’s license policy and law have very real impacts on low-wage immigrants.  This Policy Update provides a discussion of some of the issues involved in the debate over access to driver’s licenses and some policy recommendations for balancing the concerns of security and access to licenses.  (July 2004).

Low-Wage But Exempt from Overtime: New Rules Could Mean More Hours and Less Pay.  The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has issued new rules describing who is not entitled to overtime pay under the administrative, executive and professional exemptions, and the news is not good for low-income workers and their families.   This Policy Update is for workers and their advocates who want to know more about the new overtime rules and what can be done about them. (June 2004).

Social Security No-Match And Employer Sanctions: What advocates need to know.  Employers continue to be confused by the significance of Social Security no-match information.  Some are under the incorrect impression that a no-match will result in employer sanctions under the immigration law or fines by IRS.  Neither is true.  This Policy Update seeks to clarify a situation made more confusing by a recent decision in Washington state court.  (May 2004)

Special Issues for Immigrants Filing Income Tax Returns.    Immigrants working in the United States, especially those in irregular employment situations face many challenges when filing income tax returns. This publication focuses on two issues: worker access to Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs) and how to file taxes when employers misclassify workers as "independent contractors." (April 2004).

Subcontracted Workers: The Outsourcing of Rights and Responsibilities.   The media is full of stories of businesses that are increasingly using a time-worn system historically pervasive in the garment and agricultural sectors: subcontracting out work that could be done in-house to outside contractors.  This policy short describes this phenomenon and its negative effect on low-wage workers.  It also provides suggestions for how employers can be held accountable and workplace conditions improved for all. (March 2004)

Immigration Reform Proposals and Workers’ Rights.     As numerous advocates and politicians have recognized, immigration reform is a worker issue. This Policy Update outlines what meaningful reform would require and looks at current proposals from a workplace justice perspective.  (February 2004)

Complying With Immigration Law Without Violating Employees' Rights.   The immigration raids targeting janitors at Wal Mart stores conducted by BICE last October caused a ripple of anxiety among employees and employers.   The news led some employers hastily to believe they were required to re-verify existing employees’ work authorization.  This is of concern to employees because, when improperly conducted, re-verifying employee work authorization violates employees’ legal rights.  This update seeks to explain how employers can comply with immigration law without violating workplace laws. (January 2004) 

Trend: Local Efforts to Encourage Immigrants to Access Essential Social Services and Cooperate With the Police Without Fear of Immigration Consequences.  Experience shows that many immigrants will not access essential social services if doing so could result in sharing of information related to immigration status with the BICE (formerly INS)  or other federal agencies.  This policy short provides information about the recent trend of local governments adopting measures to protect confidential immigration statuso read more, click here.  (December 2003)