The fine print in employment
When an employer evaluates a would-be employee, there are a couple of technologies that streamline ”“ and complicate ”“ the hiring process.
An E-Verify Self Check service to confirm employment eligibility has been launched by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the U.S. Social Security Administration.
“I think what it does it allows employers to have some kind of security as to what applicants are coming its way,” said Marc Sheridan, partner at Markus & Sheridan L.L.P. in Mount Kisco and New York City. “I always think of the discriminatory impact on certain employees, but on its face, the way a policy is issued, if it”™s done on a nondiscriminatory basis, employers should welcome it.”
The E-Verify program, in essence, cross-checks information on I-9 (Employment Eligibility Verification) forms against databases from the federal government.
“The government has always said the employer has an absolute obligation to fill out that form,” said Robert Brody, founding member of Brody and Associates, a national employment law firm based in Westport, Conn., and New York City. “If you give me a fraudulent Social Security card written in crayon, I should have known and I”™m stupid. But if you give me something with a nine-digit number, I don”™t have to be right. It just has to look good. You have to do a good faith job of looking it over.”
With a service like E-Verify, Brody said it takes the “guesswork” out of the equation.
For the individual, it”™s more about record-keeping and will not have a groundbreaking effect on the job search.
“If you”™re an illegal, you know you”™re an illegal,” Brody said. “I don”™t think it”™s like a credit score. The only thing it would do is there are many other forms of ID you”™re allowed to use (to get a job) and maybe, ”˜Silly you,”™ you forgot it expired.”
In less informal means of verifying employment eligibility, the employer who peruses LinkedIn and Facebook to evaluate a potential employee is provided much more than an ID-number.
Employers get a sneak-peak snapshot of a candidate, their lifestyle and personality.
“If someone told you they”™re pregnant, they”™re gay and they have cancer and you turn around and say, ”˜I”™m not hiring him or her,”™ that”™s illegal,” Brody said. “In most situations, you probably wouldn”™t say that. But, if I went on your page and saw you did the Walk for Cancer and your volunteer efforts are with a gay and lesbian coalition, I can find it. In the old days, I wouldn”™t have known this stuff about you.”
The territory is tricky and the laws are not up-to-speed with the Internet, Brody said.
“We”™ve had to reinterpret it with today”™s realities.”
Sheridan said a lot of employers have revamped their social media policies in line with what is considered public information and what is private.
“I always say: When you put something up, it”™s fodder,” Sheridan said. “Can an employer use something they found on Facebook to disqualify you for employment? If it”™s out there, that”™s fodder to disqualify you.”
Employers have been trained not to ask a candidate if they”™re pregnant or how old they are, but social media capabilities let them research in a way akin to Google.
“We have so much more access to information,” Brody said. “I can get good information, I can get protected information. It”™s another information check. I get it much more unfiltered. But it can cause an employer to do the discrimination or to be accused of the discrimination” if a firing or hiring were based on merit, but appeared to be resulting from found fodder.