Sanctions law raises new questions

Should terminated workers be paid?

RONALD J. HANSEN

Published: 01.30.2008

For many Arizona employers, it can be a frustrating problem: Their new hires are illegal immigrants and must be terminated.

With the state's new employer-sanctions law, more businesses than ever before may run into the situation, and it raises questions about what comes next.

For example, do illegal workers get paid for the work they have done? Can businesses be punished for that work? Do employers have to report their workers to authorities?

"You do have to pay them. It's a pretty straightforward issue," said Larry Etchechury, director of the Industrial Commission of Arizona.

That may not sit well with those who support the state's crackdown on illegal immigrants. But the alternative, Etchechury said, invites abuse.

This is perhaps especially true these days because employers could look for workers who are at risk of failing E-Verify, the online database that checks employment eligibility, and fire those workers without paying them for up to three days of labor.

That practice wouldn't work in most industries. But it could for those who rely on unskilled laborers, the ones whose work is often the most physically demanding.