Use of Undocumented Immigrants in the Construction Industry (Essay Sample)

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The use of undocumented immigrants in the construction industry, and how it could put the construction firm at a liability
Table of Contents

Thesis
It is any firms' primary interest to make maximum profits ad one way of ensuring that is by cost cutting. Employees Salaries and remunerations is always a thorn to a company, and it is depicted in the Construction Industry, where this is prevalent as the preference for hiring undocumented immigrants is on a rise as they cost cheaper. The United States employment and labor laws require that both documented and undocumented workers are protected at the federal and state level. Employers' negligence of the laws, however, is familiar especially to the undocumented workers, and this can often lead to lawsuits where the firms loose out in litigations and compensations.
Introduction
The research aims at exploring how disputes can arise out of the construction industry as a result of the illegal hiring of undocumented immigrants as well as to find ways of avoiding conflicts or resolving them if they arise, to help improve the business situation. Construction legal issues are bound to occur and as a result, the differences often lead to formal claims by either the contractor or agency for compensation and additional time. Solving of these issues promptly helps save costs such as legal fees, consultation expenses as well as management time and other expenses to all of the parties involved. The primary focus of this research is to identify and explain the legal issues as well as how they would be altered as well as find safe practices to avoid the legal implication. Therefore, the goals of this study are too; identify and explain the legal issue, explain the particular law or legal concepts that apply courts rule off these types of cases and steps to be taken to avoid this matter in the future.
The key terms and concepts
Construction law: this is the law that involves all the necessary legal processes; the bidding, negotiations, and agreement in the construction industry. It consists of contract law. It also governs how to solve disputes that may arise from and out of the parties involved in the construction process (Stein, 1). The owner and contractor are obliged according to the law to act in good faith in the performance of their contractual obligations. The contractor is supposed to disclose any material information relating to the design or construction specifications that may result in and from damaging implication. The owner also has a duty to cooperate as well as not to delay the construction process purposefully.
Dispute: this is a conflict or disagreement concerning the legal existence of matter, by extent or type.
Claim: this is a legal enforcement or demand taken by a person wanting compensation or reimbursement for a straight loss, or an injury suffered due to negligence.
Compensation: this is payment of damages aimed at making amends necessary to restoring an injured party to his former position.
Indemnity: this is contractual collateral by which one person employs to secure another against a foreseen loss or to prevent him from being liable for the legal consequences of an act or inaction on the part of one of the parties or of some third person.
Undocumented immigrant: this is a foreign-born person who lacks the right to be in the United States, having either entered without inspection or not subsequently securing the right to stay or overstayed beyond the visa stipulated time (Chavez, 10). Common areas in the construction industry that disputes may arise to include but are not limited to subcontracting process, Formation of contracts and their termination, Ethical concerns, Allocation of losses, Insurance, payments, Bidding, Contracting, Employment, and Labor.
The Use of Undocumented immigrants and how it could put the construction firm at a liability.
Let’s commence by having a clear look at this precedent case.
Celi vs. 42nd street development project, Inc. (2004)
In making a judgment on this case, New York State court Judge maintained a claim that had been filed in behalf of one undocumented worker, known as, Radolfo Celi. Radolfo had severely suffered wounds while executing the demolition when he fell through an opening in the company basement floor and then crushed into the sub-basement. However, as a matter of responding to these charges, the firm was negligent and had violated the labor law. As a matter of defense, the company attorneys dispute these claims and argued that under Hoffman, Mr. Celli’s undocumented status prevented him from any attempt to seek lost earnings. The reason for this was that, the payment of such money would have the impact of violating the federal immigrant laws. On the other hand in the case of the Celli, State justice by the name David I. Schmidt argued that the Hoffman decision did not command a change in the New York law so as to necessitate dismissal of the plaintiff’s claim to lost earning (O'Leary780).
In the case documented as Arizona’s HB 2779, implemented January 1, 2008, prohibits employers from knowingly or deliberately hiring undocumented employees. This precedent law requires that every employer has to use the “E-Verify. The first time reprobates will have to face a ten-day suspension of their business licenses. The second bit of the law states that, any additional offense would definitely result in them loosing the business licenses.” (Gaynor, 27). This is an important precedent case, guides the decisions made even to date.
“In 2006, the town of Hazelton, Pennsylvania passed the Immigration Relief Act. This imposes a $1,000 per day fine on any landlord who knowingly rents to an undocumented immigrant, revokes the business license of any employer who hires an undocumented immigrant, and declares English as the city’s official language.” This precedent case acts as base in this state and it creates a liability should it be violated.
The United States employment and labor laws; require that both documented and undocumented workers be protected at the federal and state level. Protection at the federal and state level applies to both the immigrant and non-immigrant communities. There is an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrant worker in the US. These immigrants represent roughly 4% of all the people that reside the United States and 5% of the overall labor force. Undocumented immigrants are more likely to find employment than their non-immigrant counterparts because hiring them is comparatively cheaper. The construction industry has an estimate of 26% of foreign-born workers are laborers (Torres, 145). This is a significant figure which adds up to the vital workforce in the various business industries. In the early years, hiring undocumented immigrants had little to no legal implication, but since 1986, before hiring any employee, all employers are required to do a background check on work permits and authorization of the said employee or else risk getting civil penalties or criminal prosecutions if they fail to do so. Some estimates suggest that unauthorized workers are estimated at 22% to 36% of the construction industry workforce. According to surveys, the number of undocumented workers in the construction sector dropped by 5% from the year 2007 to the year 2012. Undocumented immigrants make up a large overall population of the labor force because they are most likely to be of a suitable age bracket for labor.
Research findings on education levels show that undocumented immigrants are more likely to have not graduated high school or lack a college diploma compared to their U.S.-born compatriots. As a result, I found out that they are more liable to be concentrated in low-skilled occupations. The hiring of undocumented immigrants has had its impact on the construction industry such as reduced wage rates, work accidents as well as fraud. Undocumented workers are in most cases not treated as equals with U.S.-born workers due to their legal status and as a result, they are subjected to a variety of job malpractices. The most common protections that are denied to undocumented workers include but are not limited to: right to receive agreed on wage, right to receive minimum wage and overtime pay for work done, right to conducive and secure working environment, right to receive workers ' compensation for injuries that are as a result of the role they have been given to work and the right not to face discrimination of any kind. The statistics clearly show that undocumented immigrants are a vital part of the workforce in the country.
As a construction firm, it is inevitable not to deal with this job scenario. To keep up with the competition, firms are resorting to hiring undocumented immigrants as they are a comparatively cheap source of labor as well as a method of cutting the payroll taxes by exploiting the workers so as not to go out of business.
Constitutional rights of undocumented immigrants
The United States Constitution demands the protection and upholding of the rights of all persons in the country and as such no one should be discriminated against the due legal processes whether they are U.S.-born or undocumented immigrants (Stein, 100). Undocumented immigrants are therefore eligible for all the procedural rights that a U.S.-born person is bound to. This includes the right to receive a notice to appear in court and defend them in a lawsuit. Legal concepts and aspects that involve labor and immigration laws revolve around two issues: the rights while working in the United States and the legal framework of undocumented immigrants who have no right to be hired in America.
These immigration and labor laws were made to prevent hiring illegal workforce which is prohibited by the federal legisla...