May 10, 2010. Interim Director of Human Resources tells UFF that bargaining unit faculty and staff “will be disciplined for misconduct, up to and including termination” for failing to comply with E-Verify process.
Dear Colleague,
On April 28 I brought to your attention the fact that the administration was threatening faculty with termination if they did not refile their refile their I-9 forms through the the E-Verify Program. I also pointed out that such an action may be a violation of federal law.
UFF-FAU has received correspondence from Interim Director of Human Resources Marie Mascaro asserting that FAU has in fact implemented the E-Verify system “for the entire University workforce” essentially as a catch-all, “due to the magnitude and variation of salaries, or portions of salaries, supported by federal grants/contracts from time to time, and the vulnerability in the [FAU administration’s] ability [competence?] to accurately track the movement of employees and students onto and off of federal grant and contract funding lines.” Mascaro asserts that “the only employees that are exempt from this process are those who have been continuously employed at the University with a hire date on or before November 6, 1986.”
Mascaro notes that the she presented the E-Verify plan to a variety of administrators, the University’s legal counsel (who in all probability recommended and/or approved disciplining and even terminating employees for failure to comply with the process), and the Faculty Senate. As usual, however, the administration never bothered to contact UFF-FAU, the contractual representative of the faculty in affairs involving workplace practices and conditions impacting on the bargaining unit.
Although Mascaro failed to consult with UFF, she clarifies that “any University employee, faculty or otherwise, who fails to complete the e-verify process [by July 15, 2010] as required by the University [administration] will be disciplined for misconduct, up to and including termination.” Again, this is a drastic threat, particularly when considering the recent history of administrative-faculty relations, severely damaged by the layoffs of senior faculty in the College of Engineering in May 2009. Further, this is being done for the sake of administrative convenience in lieu of a more professional effort to discern between employees who are attached to federal contracts than those who are not. Finally, the emails sent out to alert employees of E-Verify could be easily overlooked, especially given the volume of email generated by the administration, some of which is of uncertain significance.
In terms of addressing this, UFF presently has little recourse through conventional channels. The time span to file an Unfair Labor Practice Charge (6 months from the date of the incident, in this case the program’s implementation) has expired. We still believe, however, that terminating an established employee for not participating in the above may be a violation of federal law. We are presently attempting to confirm this and will advise when more information has been obtained.
In solidarity,
James Tracy
UFF-FAU President