Target & Whole Foods Market Charged w/ Discriminating Against Authorized Immigrant Workers

For Immediate Release
The Legal Aid Society of San Francisco - Employment Law Center

CONTACTS:
Christopher Ho, Senior Staff Attorney, LAS-ELC, 415.864.8848
Carole Vigne, Skadden Fellow, LAS-ELC, 415.864.8848
Mari Hatta, Vice President, External Relations, LAS-ELC, 415.864.8848, ext. 271; mhatta [at] las-elc.org

Target and Whole Foods Market Charged with
Discriminating Against
Authorized Immigrant Workers

Two Latina Immigrant Workers Fall Victim to Over-Scrutiny of Work Papers

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, November 14, 2007 – The Legal Aid Society - Employment Law Center (LAS-ELC) today filed two separate charges against the Target Corporation and Whole Foods Market with the U.S. Department of Justice, alleging that the companies engaged in employment discrimination by illegally firing and suspending, respectively, two immigrant workers, even though they had presented clear evidence of their authorization to work in the United States. The companies’ unwarranted over-scrutiny of two Latina immigrants’ work authorizations – an unlawful practice known as “document abuse” – led to the termination of a Target employee, who is authorized to work under Temporary Protected Status (TPS), and a 30 day suspension without pay of a Whole Foods Market employee, who is a naturalized United States citizen.

“The charges we are filing today reflect a sharply rising incidence of employer misconduct when it comes to immigrant workers,” said Christopher Ho, a Senior Staff Attorney at LAS-ELC. “This is exactly the kind of illegal practice that Congress passed laws to prevent more than 20 years ago. But in today’s climate of suspicion and hostility toward immigrants in general, some employers are apparently taking the attitude that nothing is too extreme, not even witch hunts that entrap innocent people.”

Under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA), Congress required that all employees show their eligibility to work in the United States by presenting any combination of approved documents specified by law (and listed on the back of the Form I-9) within three days after they are hired. IRCA makes it unlawful for an employer to commit “document abuse” – that is, to ask an employee for “more or different documents” than are required to prove employment authorization, or to reject any permissible combination of documents that the employee supplies. In each of the charges filed today, the employers illegally rejected documents that were entirely satisfactory to prove work authorization, taking adverse actions against the workers in each case.

“The facts could not show more clearly that both Target and Whole Foods Market engaged in classic document abuse, and our clients have suffered the harsh consequences of such illegality,” said Carole Vigne, a Skadden Fellow with the LAS-ELC. “When employers engage in document abuse, they take away much more than someone’s right to work – our clients have been deprived of their feeling of self-sufficiency, their sense of stability, and their piece of the American dream.”

Document Abuse Charge Against Target

Edna Mejia, a 41-year old Salvadoran immigrant and single mother of two, had worked for Target at its Colma store since 2002. In September 2007, however, Target refused to accept her employment authorization document, even though she showed human resources personnel a press release from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services stating that the document did not expire until March 9, 2008.

“I felt very bad when I was terminated, especially because I knew that I have the right to work and that I am a good employee,” said Ms. Mejia. “I don’t want other workers to go through what I went through, especially the emotional and physical stress of not knowing how I will provide for my children or pay rent, and suffer the difficulty I am having finding new work now too.”

Document Abuse Charge Against Whole Foods Market

The second employee, a 39-year-old Mexican immigrant and mother of three who prefers to remain unnamed, was suspended for thirty days from the Whole Foods Market store in Redwood City, where she had worked since 2004. She became a U.S. citizen earlier this year. In late August 2007, for no apparent reason, she was asked to produce additional employment authorization documentation – even though she had already submitted proper and sufficient documentation when she was hired. She was unable to comply with Whole Foods Market’s unlawful request for additional documentation, however, since she had sent her immigration documents to the State Department as part of her application for a United States passport. Despite repeatedly explaining her situation, she was precipitously suspended by Whole Foods Market for one month.

The employee commented, “Whole Foods had no reason to look into my work authorization papers. Losing a month’s salary hurt my family and me financially and emotionally, I felt frustrated, stressed, and anxious – I even went to the hospital because of the stress. I can’t imagine what I would have done if I were a single mother.”

The two charges are being filed with the Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices (OSC) of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. Under IRCA, OSC will investigate the charges and, if it finds that they are substantiated, may initiate formal proceedings before the Office of the Chief Administrative Officer (OCAHO). Employers found to have committed document abuse are subject to a variety of civil penalties and/or cease and desist orders, and wronged employees may be entitled to awards of back pay, reinstatement, and other types of injunctive relief.

For more information about whether an employer has engaged in document abuse and what the rights of employees are, please see the Document Abuse Fact Sheet available at http://www.las-elc.org/documentabuseENG00086545.PDF (and in Spanish at http://www.las-elc.org/newspanfacts/00086543-2.PDF and in Chinese at http://www.las-elc.org/documentabuseCHN00086544.PDF).