Supreme Court says no backpay to illegal immigrants

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May 2002

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Supreme Court says no backpay to illegal immigrants

Supreme Court says no backpay to illegal immigrants
On March 29 the Supreme Court of the United States overturned a ruling by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to award back pay to an illegal immigrant who was fired because he participated in union organizing.

During hearings that determined that Hoffman Plastic Company had fired Jose Castro unlawfully, it was also revealed that Castro had identified himself fraudulently as a U.S. citizen to his former employer. Nonetheless, NLRB concluded that the most effective way to serve immigration statutes is to allow the protections and remedies of the National Labor Relations Act to apply to undocumented workers in the same manner as to other employees.

The decision by the NLRB states that back pay is in order, while reinstatement would be contingent on the employee's ability to show legitimate proof of eligibility for employment in the U.S. But the Supreme Court disagreed, citing Castro's illegal act of false identification. Because the employment was rendered under false pretenses, the Court says, labor protections do not apply.

The National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice, headquartered in Chicago, denounced the Court's decision saying it "amounts to legalized exploitation and gives the green light to anti-union, anti-worker employers to violate national labor law and basic human rights with impunity."

Rabbi Robert Marx, Board President of NICWJ, said the decision "arms employers with a new weapon to intimidate immigrant workers. . . . And it is terrible that the Supreme Court would approve of the U.S. accepting taxes and benefits from the productivity these workers generate but deny them the protection under U.S. labor laws." —Tara Dix

For more information:
National Interfaith Committee on Worker Justice
National Labor Relations Board

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