Employers

Employers in Maryland and across the United States face a deadline Wednesday that some may not know exists but that could prove costly if ignored. That's when all employers will be required to use an updated version of the federal I-9 form to prove the eligibility of new workers. The form appears to be short and simple, requesting an employee's name, address, Social Security number and citizenship status. But immigration and business experts say it's more complex than it looks.

Employers in Maryland and across the United States face a deadline Wednesday that some may not know exists but that could prove costly if ignored. That's when all employers will be required to use an updated version of the federal I-9 form to prove the eligibility of new workers. The form appears to be short and simple, requesting an employee's name, address, Social Security number and citizenship status. But immigration and business experts say it's more complex than it looks.

On April 25, theU.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission(EEOC), for the first time in 25 years, updated its guidance on how employers may use criminal background checks in the hiring process. The new guidelines reaffirm that it is illegal under the Civil Rights Act for companies to exclude people from employment based on arrest or conviction records - unless the offense is directly related to the job at hand. The need for EEOC action was dire. More than 1 in 4 Americans - 65 million people - have an arrest or conviction record, leaving a significant segment of the population largely shut out of the job market.

Have you ever just messed up? I'm not talking about leaving your coffee on the roof of your car. I mean a major, life-altering mistake. Think fiscal cliff-level personal disaster. Now imagine paying for the mistake with jail time - then continuing to pay for the rest of your life by being shut out of every new opportunity to reestablish yourself. That's the life of Marylanders with prior misdemeanor convictions right now, and the General Assembly appears to want them to keep living their nightmares, while taxpayers foot the bill.

Jeremy Schwarz's op-ed piece contrasting unemployment insurance and welfare makes several points that don't bear up under scrutiny ("Unemployment benefits are not like welfare," Dec. 21). He's correct that people pay insurance to protect themselves in case of an adverse event; however, workers do not pay for unemployment insurance. Unlike Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid, to which both employers and employees contribute, unemployment insurance is paid entirely by the employer.

Using returning troops to patrol our borders, as a recent letter writer suggested ("Put Iraq veterans to work on the U.S.-Mexico border," Oct. 26), may seem like a good idea, but if they would only be able to patrol part of it, what good would it do? The best way to stop illegal immigrants from crossing the border get a job would be to stop hiring them. If there's no job, there's no reason to come here. Create a bigger penalty for the employers who hire them. John Cramblitt, Parkville

Businesses often complain of being overwhelmed by government regulations. But when your practice is not to hire someone because they've been unemployed, well, you deserve regulation. According to the National Employment Law Project, Sen. Blumenthal of Connecticut introduced legislation this week to ban employers from only hiring those that currently have jobs. “A snapshot sampling of recent online job postings disclosed a large number of ads explicitly limited to those who are 'currently employed',” said Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project.  “This perverse catch-22 requires a worker to have a job in order to get a job, and it means highly qualified, experienced workers who want and need work can't get past the starting gate in the application process simply because they lost their jobs through no fault of their own. As a business practice, this makes no sense, and as a way to rebuild the economy, it only debilitates workers, particularly the long-term unemployed.” A similar bill has been introduced in the House that prohibits employers with 15 or more workers from discriminating against workers based on their unemployment history.

This year's Black Friday became the backdrop not only for doorbuster HDTV sales but for protests from retail workers across the country. Workers at Walmart, Target, even Macy's, have decried  unfair wages and conditions. So which retailers are the best employers? Job search engine Indeed.com has come out with a list of the top 15 companies to work for in retail. Indeed based the rankings on reviews posted by current and former employees on Indeed's company pages. Here they are: 1. Apple 2. Disney Store 3. Coach 4. Costco 5. IKEA 6. Dressbarn 7. Halloween City 8. Champs Sports 9. REI 10. Nike 11. Vitamin World 12. Nordstrom 13. Sherwin Williams 14. Finish Line 15. Bath & Body Works  

Think twice before sneaking time at work to shop online on Black Friday, Cyber Monday or other times during the holiday. As many as 60 percent of employers say they will be block workers' access to online shopping sites this season, according to a survey of more than 1,400 companies by Robert Half Technology. That's up from 48 percent of companies with 100 or more employees that did so last year. The new survey also found that 23 percent of companies this year “will allow access but monitor for excessive use.” Thirty-four percent monitored shopping last year.

In his letter to The Sun ("Readers respond," March 26), Donald Frost laments giving illegal immigrants the right to pay in-state tuition to state colleges and universities. What he and so many others seem to forget is that these immigrants are being employed by our fellow American citizens, who, by and large are allowed to continue this practice with impunity. Surely, these illegal employers — who ignore checking the status of those they hire — are well known to the authorities, but, with a wink and a nod, get overlooked or given a slap on the wrist.

Developers plan to build 1,700 housing units near a mixed-use business park in White Marsh, saying it will "supercharge" an area that had previously been targeted for job creation. The $100 million development, Greenleigh at Crossroads, would be part of the 1,000-acre Baltimore Crossroads @95. Baltimore County officials announced the plans Wednesday with representatives from developer St. John Properties and Somerset Construction Co. St. John officials said they'll break ground on the 200-acre project — which will include single-family houses, townhouses, condominium units and apartments — within the next year to 18 months.

When Howard County's transportation chief looks at a flow chart of mass transit service in the suburbs south of Baltimore, he sees a tangle of "spaghetti mesh" that ill serves the region's workers, senior citizens and handicapped. John Powell Jr. hopes to bring order to that chaos next year by uniting Howard and Anne Arundel County bus services under a single entity that would eventually morph into the state's first regional transit authority. Annapolis and Laurel officials are considering joining the effort.

Maryland employers added 4,700 jobs in March, gains driven by the private sector, the U.S. Department of Labor estimated Friday. It was the fourth straight month of increases, though at a lower level than the previous three. The expansion brought Maryland within about 5,000 jobs of finally regaining the number of positions the state had before the effects of the last recession set in - compared with nearly 2.9 million jobs still to go nationwide, more than the country added in all of last year.

At an age when many workers are thinking about winding down their careers, Victoria Baldassano of Silver Spring says she can't afford to give retirement a thought. The part-time English professor at Montgomery College said her income has been too low for too long to save for retirement, and she's carrying about $40,000 in credit card debt racked up to pay living expenses. "It's an awkward situation to be in at 61," said Baldassano, who said she thinks more about day-to-day bills than retirement.

William J. Rosenthal, a noted expert in labor and employment law who as a naval deck officer during World War II participated in the D-Day invasion, died March 12 of a hemorrhage at Northwest Hospital. He was 92. "He was a physically imposing person, and when he walked into a room, you could not help but appreciate his presence," said Stephen D. Shawe, a partner in the firm of Shawe & Rosenthal LLP. "He instilled incredible confidence in clients who'd say, 'I've got a lawyer who knows what he is doing.'" The son of a lawyer and a homemaker, William Jay Rosenthal was born in Baltimore and spent his early years on Ducatel Street before moving with his family to Egerton Road in Northwest Baltimore.

When Peggy Young became pregnant with her third child, she said a supervisor told her she was a liability and not to come back to work as a UPS package delivery driver in Landover until she had the baby. "I was very upset because I wanted to work; I was willing to do my regular job," she said in a telephone interview Friday. Her midwife had written a letter saying she couldn't lift more than 20 pounds, but Young said she was willing to do her regular duties if management wouldn't give her less strenuous work.

Last week at the Howard County Fair, I spoke with Comptroller Peter Franchot about the upcoming Special Session. We discussed Governor O'Malley's comments that he is open to increasing taxes during the Special Session in October. I was pleased to hear that the comptroller agreed with me that during such difficult economic times, the last thing that the state of Maryland should be doing is raising taxes. With Maryland being 50th in the nation in private sector job creation, we need to take steps to encourage job growth not discourage it. Instead of raising taxes, Maryland needs to enact legislation and implement regulations that will demonstrate to employers that they are welcome in Maryland.

Many long-term unemployed have discovered an ugly truth: You need a job to get one. Jobless workers across the country have recounted tales of being written off by a prospective employer if they have been out of work for six months or more. And some job ads have explicitly stated that a candidate must be currently employed. Now Maryland has joined a growing number of states considering legislation to prevent employers from discriminating against the unemployed. "It's about changing minds or changing attitudes, and then changing behaviors of the employers and the people who represent the employers," says Jackie Gray, a Baltimore resident who co-founded an advocacy group, Unemployed Rising, and supports the legislation.

Many Maryland businesses rely on a payroll service provider to handle their tax withholdings, but they still need to make sure the Internal Revenue Service gets its due. That fact became evident in recent days, following allegations that a Bel Air payroll company had failed to forward clients' tax payments to the federal government. The company - AccuPay - is under police investigation and being sued by several clients. States, including Maryland, generally don't license payroll service providers or require them to be bonded.

Employees at General Motors' plant in White Marsh have an unusual workplace benefit. Anyone who drives an electric car can plug it in to charge while they work. At the plant, which produces transmissions and electric motors, workers can park their electric vehicles — or EVs — in any of eight spaces under two solar-powered canopies in the employee lot. "You encourage the use of EVs and give employees some benefit," said William Tiger, plant manager for General Motors Baltimore Operations.