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Politics : America Under Siege: The End of Innocence -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: joseph krinsky who wrote (14466)	3/27/2002 12:56:37 PM
From: lorne	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 27720

Supreme Court Sides With Company in Firing of Illegal Worker By Gina Holland Associated Press Writer Published: Mar 27, 2002 WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that illegal immigrants do not have the same rights as Americans when they are wrongly fired from U.S. jobs. The court split 5-4 on whether companies can be forced to give back pay to illegal workers when they mistreat them on the job. "Awarding back pay to illegal aliens runs counter to policies underlying" federal immigration laws, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist wrote in the court's opinion. The Bush administration had argued that penalties are needed to keep employers from wronging illegal workers, considering the estimated 7 million undocumented workers in the United States. U.S. citizens are entitled to back pay if wrongly fired. The National Labor Relations Board said Jose Castro, even though he was an illegal worker, was owed nearly $67,000. Castro, a Mexican national, lied to get a job at a California plant and then was fired after trying to start a union. Rehnquist said the employer in the case, Hoffman Plastic Compounds Inc., can be subject to "significant other sanctions" including a requirement that it prominently post a notice to employees about their rights. Justice Stephen Breyer said Hoffman was guilty of "a crude and obvious" violation of the labor laws. The $67,000 penalty, he said, "reasonably helps to deter unlawful activity that both labor laws and immigration laws seek to prevent." Joining Breyer were Justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The Supreme Court has already ruled that undocumented workers are protected by federal labor laws. Justices said that did not entitle them to back pay "for wages that could not lawfully have been earned and for a job obtained in the first instance by a criminal fraud." Castro used a friend's identification to get a a minimum wage job operating a plant blender at Hoffman's plant in Paramount, Calif. He and three other employees were laid off in 1989 after they supported efforts to unionize the plant. He did not speak English, nor did half of the other plant workers, according to court records. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia sided 5-4 with Castro, who was fired for handing out union cards to fellow employees. The Supreme Court's ruling overturned that. The case is Hoffman Plastic Compounds v. National Labor Relations Board, 00-1595. ap.tbo.com