Employers were seemingly given broader license to fire illegal immigrants at will by a San Francisco federal appeals court, which ruled this week that a company cannot be forced to hire back fired employees who can't legally work in the United States.
In a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, an Arizona roofing company does not have to comply with a settlement reached with a roofing union mandating the company hire back unlawfully terminated employees who would be working illegally.
All the trouble started when the United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers filed three unfair labor practice charges against C&C Roofing Supply, Inc., one of which accused the company of unlawfully firing 20 employees. In a settlement, C&C agreed to reinstatement and backpay for each employee in consent judgment approved by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in 2007.
But then C&C reneged on its promise, saying that they couldn't legally hire back some of the employees because they were illegal aliens. The NLRB's general counsel filed an application for enforcement with the district court in January 2008.
But the court ruled in C&C's favor, saying the NLRB cannot force a company to rehire someone in violation of federal law. The court says C&C must "provide proper proof, satisfactory to the Board, of the unauthorized status of those individuals it claims are unauthorized aliens, and to rehire the others."
H/T | Courthouse News
