09/08/2009 - New E-Verify Rule for Federal Contractors/Subcontractors Effective Today
As of today, all contractors and subcontractors signing contracts to do business with the federal government - even those who receive American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds - are required to utilize the E-Verify on-line employment eligibility verification system to verify that employees are legally authorized to accept employment in the United States.
All new contracts with the federal government will now include the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) E-Verify clause, requiring business signing contracts with the federal government to enroll in the E-Verify program if they had not already done so, and to use the E-Verify system to ensure that With certain exceptions, E-Verify must be used to confirm that all new hires, whether or not employed on a federal contract, and all existing employees directly working on these contracts, are legally authorized to work in the United States.
Federal contracts constitute an enormous part of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and an exceptionally large number of U.S. employers are engaged in government work and likely to be impacted by this rule.
The problem with this is that E-Verify relies on a highly flawed database which returns a very high number of false "mismatches." Employers are thus forced into an administrative nightmare in trying to sort out whether an employee is in fact authorized to work. In extreme cases where no solution is found after going through the prescribed process, and employer may face the choice of federal fines for failing to terminate an employee vs. civil liability for terminating an employee validly authorized to work.
At the same time, the rights of authorized workers - some actually U.S. citizens - are violated by the false positives resulting from this flawed system.
While much of this has already been happening with existing users of the E-Verify system, instances will likely increase exponentially with the increased user base this regulation will bring.
Any company/employer performing work for the federal government. any company/employer who wishes to pursue federal contracts in the future. Any employee of such a company.