For the first time in 17 years, portions of the united states government are closed as the House of Representatives, the Senate and the White house were unable to reach an agreement to fund the federal government for the 2014 fiscal year.
While the affects of this government shutdown are broad and far reaching, the main cause for concern for human resource professionals should be that a number of government organizations such as; e-verify, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), have been either shutdown or severely limited.
For the duration of the shutdown, e-verify will be unavailable. This means that any previous e-verify users will be unable to;
- Enroll any new company in e-verify
- Verify employment eligibility
- View or take action on any case
- Add delete or edit ant user ID
- Reset passwords
- Edit company information
- Terminate an account
- Run reports
- Or view other ‘Essential Resources’
Additionally, the e-verify customer support and related services are closed. This means that employees will be unable to resolve Tentative Non-Confirmations (TNCs) and telephone / email support will be unavailable. Webinars, training sessions, and e-verify Self Check are also unavailable.
As for the EEOC;
- 107 of the agency’s 2,164 staff and contract personnel will remain on the job. This includes Presidential appointees, such as the five EEOC commissioners and the EEOC general counsel.
- Staff will not be available to answer questions from the public, or to respond to correspondence from the public.
- While the EEOC will accept charges that must be filed in order to preserve the rights of a claimant, these charges will not be investigated.
- Insofar as the courts grant the EEOC’s requests for extensions of time, the EEOC will not litigate in the federal courts.
- Mediations will be cancelled.
- Federal sector hearings will be cancelled, and federal employees’ appeals of discrimination complaints will not be decided.
- Outreach and education events will be cancelled.
- No FOIA requests will be processed.
More on the EEOC’s situation can be found here.
As the shutdown continues, the consequences will ripple throughout the economy and the job markets. For now, other government services that may have an adverse impact on HR are the Department of Labor, Federal Courts, and National Labor Relations Board. Click in their respective links for more information and updates.
HR Opinion
Employers should be aware that a Memorandum of Understanding regarding an e-verify should does exist, and states specifically “If the automated system to be queried is temporarily unavailable, the 3-day time period is extended until it is again operational in order to accommodate the Employer’s attempting, in good faith, to make inquiries during the period of unavailability.” (See Article II C (II) of the MOU).
Employers attempting to use-e-verify can go directly to the e-verify website to receive additional guidance as this shutdown ensures: www.dhs.gov/e-verify.
Additional immigration related information can be found here.
