The illegal immigrant population of the United States in 2008 was estimated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to be about 10 million people. Despite their effort to put a stop on illegal immigrants,their population is still high in numbers. This is mainly due to companies who are encouraging illegal immigrants by offering them jobs. ICE has served hundreds of employers in the past with Notices of Inspections as an attempt to reduce their numbers to minimum. This is a very sensitive issue as hiring illegal immigrants will leave citizens with less or no job opportunities. As a result, we will see an increase in the number of people who are unemployed, begging the government to help. It is not incorrect to say that facility managers play an important role in the life cycle of office buildings. They are in charge for maintenance and cleaning service of buildings and therefore need to be extra vigilant at the time of hire, contracting or subcontracting work. The most important thing that a Facility Manager can do is to make sure that contractors they choose to give work does not subcontract their work. Follow this link to learn more about ILLEGAL SUBCONTRACTING om another one of our blog postings.
Why Should YOU Be Concerned?
To create and maintain a socially concious image in the eyes of customers and society, one needs to follow the law. Hiring an illegal immigrant is against the law and can also affect other businesses which are associated with the same company directly or indirectly. When found guilty, ICE imposes heavy duty fines and black lists your business by serving inspection notices which will create negative publicity for a business. In late 2011, it was reported by the MLA that ICE announced that the owners of a Michigan dairy farm were sentenced to three years probation and ordered to pay millions in penalties for hiring and harboring unauthorized workers.
If you have contracted, hired, subcontracted or are working with a company who has hired illegal immigrants, you can still receive a notice from ICE. It is important for facility managers to pull their socks up and take correct decisions in order to save the facility or business owners from being blamed.
What Can YOU Do?
A professional business knows the importance of background checks and will be conducting them frequently-before and after hiring employees. Background checks of employees are important and must be regulated across the country. While performing background checks on employees certain points are taken into consideration, as it’s not limited to criminal history checks. Education, Employment History, Reference Verifications, Professional Licenses, and Medical Records are important too. THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS TO MAKE SURE THAT YOUR CONTRACTOR IS USING E-VERIFY. Here is a website that you can go on to find out if your contractor is using E-Veriy: E-VERIFY COMPANY DATABASE
If you outsource your cleaning needs before contracting work to cleaning businesses, you must have enough information about them, especially when businesses have employees those are here today and gone tomorrow. Let’s take a look at some points which must be taken into consideration while performing a background check.
Points to Lookout for while Performing a Background Check:
- Education Verification
- Employment History Verification
- Professional References Verification
- E-Verify
- Criminal History Verification
- Drug Testing
At STATHAKIS, we have a unique perspective on how to provide commercial cleaning services. We believe cleaning is much more that just dusting, mopping, and emptying trashcans. We believe in building a family like a relation with our clients. This in turn, puts their mind at ease and in carefree mode when it comes to business cleaning. We have various verification methods in place at the time of hire to ensure that our staff is knowledgeable and dependable.
* MLA: "ICE has major beef with Michigan dairy farm: owners sentenced ..." www.lawlogix.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 June 2012 <http://www.lawlogix.com/electronic-i9/enforcement/ice-has-major-beef-with-michigan-dairy-farm-owners-sentenced-to-three-years-of-probation-and-ordered-to-pay-nearly-3-million-in-penalties/.
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