Hopes, wishes and E-Verify

When we were out at the SHRM conference in Hattiesburg, we had the chance to sit next to an attorney who specialized in labor law. “Hell,” he said, “we have no idea what this law’s going to do.”

We had another conversation with an attorney there this week (a different one, but still a labor attorney). He’s hopeful, he said, that there will be a lawsuit. “But let’s be honest,” he continued, “any time that you’re hoping for a lawsuit to fix things, you’re in a bad spot.”

We tend to agree. Mississippi is now less than a month away from the first stage of implementing the Employment Protection Act. Most of the business owners we’ve talked to keep hoping, rather than planning.

If you’re an employer in Mississippi, here’s what you should be doing right now:

1. Figure out what solution is right for you (i.e., the free government version or our premium version)

2. Get signed up and ready so those July 3rd hires don’t get you in trouble. If you use the government version of the interface, each user has to sit through a tutorial and pass the Mastery test before being able to use the system. That’ll take a couple hours. Or you could just use us, and you won’t have to do that.

Either way, if your company is in the first phase of MEPA, you need to stop wishin’ and start doin’.

The tide rolls on

Back from short break …

Lots of E-Verifyish news here. Missouri and Rhode Island have both passed laws requiring the use of E-Verify for a majority of employers. Suffolk County, N.Y. passed its own employer-sanctions law. Washington County, Utah officials are discussing doing the same.

Setting aside the emotional pro/con arguments, the trend we’ve noticed continues: more and more jurisdictions are passing laws that are dependent on E-Verify.

Which makes it all the more interesting that E-Verify needs to be reauthorized in November. That debate’s going to be bloody, where everyone invokes “the will of the people.”