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SAN DIEGO - Lawn and landscape contractors have plenty of worries, but there probably isn’t any single issue that concerns them more than the potential of a visit from the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). A 2000 Lawn & Landscape survey found that more than 60 percent of all industry companies employ at least one Hispanic employee, and the majority of companies rely heavily on this workforce.
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In addition to the annual winter School of Management conference, Lawn & Landscape holds an annual fall conference titled Business Strategies. Named “Managing Human Resources In Your Company,” this year’s conference is ideal for businesses of any size and will cover a variety of human resources issues. Business Strategies attendees in 2001 will hear from the leading experts on human resources from inside and outside the green industry, network with fellow industry professionals and walk away with the tools to make employee recruitment and retention a profitable part of their businesses. The 2001 Lawn & Landscape Business Strategies Conference: Managing Human Resources In Your Company conference will be held Oct. 7-9, 2001, in Scottsdale, Ariz. Details about this conference will soon be available at www.lawnbusinessstrategies.com. Additionally, the 2002 Lawn & Landscape School of Management will be held Feb. 17-19, 2002, in Charlotte, N.C. Details about this conference will be available later this year at www.lawnschool.com. For more information about Lawn & Landscape’s annual conferences, contact Maria Miller at 800/456-0707 or mmiller@gie.net. |
While many contractors fear that some of their employees may not be legal immigrants, even more contractors are confused by exactly what constitutes a legal immigrant and how they’re supposed to know who can and can’t be in the country. Attendees at the Lawn & Landscape School of Management, Feb. 10-13, 2001, in San Diego, Calif., learned more about this critical and confusing issue when they heard from Robert Butler, special investigative agent with the INS, as part of a workshop on Managing Multi-Cultural Employees that was sponsored by SILC, GTO International and Marcus Drake International.
Butler started his presentation by explaining what companies the INS is actually looking to audit: “We are after the employers who blatantly violate the law by either knowingly hiring unauthorized workers or by continuing to employ unauthorized workers,” he related. “We are not interested in delving into paperwork violations.”
An employer’s key to protecting his or her company from INS difficulties revolves around the I-9 form, which is required for all employees hired since 1986. “This form is not required as a condition for employment, but it must be filled out after someone is hired,” Butler pointed out. “Employers have to examine the three sections of the document to verify that the employee meets the eligibility requirements for employment and can prove his or her identity. This can be done either by completing section A on the I-9 or by completing sections B and C.”
When INS agents show up at a company to conduct an audit, they are typically interested in seeing all of the employer’s I-9 forms. “We’ll typically want to see all I-9 forms for new employees hired in the last 36 months,” he noted.
Many companies who have been audited or even raided by the INS wonder why they were targeted. “We work off of leads or tips,” Butler confirmed. “If we come to your company, we’re not coming out of the blue - we’re not allowed to do that. We have to have a lead. Our leads typically come from your competitors, disgruntled ex-employees or people on your office staff who don’t like how you’re conducting business.”
Butler also explained that some INS offices are sensitive to employers’ concerns that any employees they are forced to terminate due to their illegal immigrant status will only end up working for a competitor the next day. “What we do is large-scale applications that blanket a single industry at the same time to level out the playing field,” Butler related. “The four major industries we target in San Diego are the hotel/motel, restaurant, construction and landscape.”
And while Butler understands the reputation the INS has with many contractors, he wanted them to know that INS is aware of the challenges they face in the current labor market. “Normally, the I-9 forms are audited and we’ll give the employer a chance to terminate any illegal employees,” he noted. “Unfortunately, we don’t assist you in hiring new employees or finding replacements. The system should provide you with an adequate supply of legal labor, but it just doesn’t work that way. To change that, I personally think you have to lobby Congress as an industry because they’re the ones who get things done.”
The author is Editor of Lawn & Landscape magazine.