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Legislation beefing up Indiana’s employment eligibility verification law no longer threatens violators with a yearlong ban from public works contracts following major edits Wednesday.
Instead, the reworked Senate Bill 87 offers employers — that, acting in “good faith,” misidentify a worker as eligible to work or vice versa — immunity from civil liability.
“This is a strong … statement proclaiming that Hoosier tax dollars invested in public works project will only be spent on legal workers,” said Sen. Linda Rogers, R-Granger.
Rogers brought a significant amendment before the Senate’s Pensions and Labor Committee, which she chairs. It was taken by consent.
The legislation explicitly extends the state’s existing E-Verify requirement to all public works projects, regardless of the construction delivery method. Witnesses previously complained of “loopholes” allowing certain construction managers to “self-perform” checks.
Rogers called the provision an “important” expansion of the state’s “commitment to being accountable to taxpayers.”
Before their employees begin work, contractors would have to provide the entity that hired the company with a notarized affidavit affirming they don’t knowingly employ unauthorized workers, and run employees working on the project through E-Verify.
The internet-based federal program cross-checks a new hire’s eligibility to work in the U.S. The system compares information from the employment eligibility Form I-9 to records maintained by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration.
Contractors would have three business days to provide an E-Verify number for specific employees upon the hiring entity’s request.
In response to concerns prime contractors would be responsible for their sub-contractors’ mistakes, Rogers’ amendment specifies the requirements apply to a firm’s direct employees.
Contractors would be prohibited from employing people that don’t pass E-Verify muster, although workers would be able to join the project later if they get a valid number.
A yearlong public works contracting ban for firms that “knowingly or intentionally” violate the bill was nixed in favor of a safe harbor provision for those “acting in good faith” — another response to critical testimony last week.
Current law offers 30 days to remedy violations but otherwise directs state agencies or local units to cancel the contracts. It also includes a rebuttable presumption that employers didn’t knowingly hire an unauthorized worker if the person came up clear in E-Verify.
Senate Bill 87, Rogers said, “dramatically expands the utilization of E-Verify in public works while maintaining an environment in which … contractors have the ability to do great work without undue administrative burdens.”
It was approved unanimously and now heads to the Senate floor.
The Indiana Capital Chronicle is an independent, nonprofit news organization that covers state government, policy and elections.
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