“The highway to social justice for the farm employee is the highway to unionization. Our trigger, our strike . . . our worldwide boycott are all based upon our deep conviction that the type of collective self-help, which is unionization, holds much more hope for the farm employee than every other single method . . . This conviction is what brings spirit, excessive hopes and optimism to the whole lot we do.”
-Cesar Chavez
Whereas the phrases and actions of Chicano labor chief Cesar Chavez achieved substantial strides in employees’ rights over 60 years in the past, for the 8 million+ unauthorized immigrants working within the U.S. as we speak, rights to a protected office, satisfactory pay, and freedom from discrimination and reporting retaliation stay a objective, not but a given. Nonetheless, latest authorized motion in Pennsylvania and New Jersey seeks to guard the tens of millions of immigrant employees within the Mid-Atlantic area.
On Aug. 8, 2024, New Jersey’s Lt. Gov. Tahesha Means signed a brand new regulation to guard immigrant employees by penalizing employers who retaliate towards an worker for reporting a possible office violation. By offering this anti-retaliation safety, Means hopes to tell immigrant employees of their rights concerning wages, breaks, leaves, office security, and safety from discrimination no matter standing by encouraging them to make reviews and maintain employers accountable.
Equally to New Jersey regulation, Pennsylvania regulation (together with federal regulation) offers a number of vital protections to immigrant employees, no matter standing. All employees have the suitable to be paid a minimal wage for all hours labored, which incorporates safety from deductions for damaged tools or supplies. All employees have the suitable to a protected office, employer-paid medical payments for office accidents, and non permanent go away for sickness. Furthermore, these protections embrace prevention of discrimination primarily based on race, pores and skin coloration, age, nationwide origin, gender, incapacity, being pregnant, and sexual orientation. For every of those rights, employees have the suitable to report potential office violations and are protected employer retaliation for doing so.
In Pennsylvania, the state workplace of the legal professional common doesn’t share private info of employees to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) or different immigration authorities except required by a subpoena or judicial warrant to take action. Pennsylvania regulation additionally protects immigrant employees from fraud, abuse, human trafficking, and different comparable injustices.
It’s noteworthy that refugee or asylee standing robotically offers work authorization that doesn’t expire. Nevertheless, immigrants with refugee or asylee standing might obtain solely the court docket order granting asylum and usually don’t obtain a selected doc proving employment authorization with an expiration date. This will confuse employers unfamiliar with immigration legal guidelines; nonetheless, state and federal regulation protects refugees and asylees from discrimination stemming from this confusion reminiscent of refusal to rent, paying decrease wages, wrongfully threatening to contain immigration authorities, and different sorts of office harassment.
If you’re an worker with issues a few office violation, or an employer in search of to make sure immigration-related compliance, the attorneys at Norris McLaughlin, P.A. might help you navigate the complexity of immigration-related employment legal guidelines. In the event you want immigration, work authorization, or naturalization help, please don’t hesitate to succeed in out to the Immigration attorneys at Norris McLaughlin, P.A. at data@norris-law.com.
