Duty to bargain extends to immigration compliance

An employer should have bargained with a union over the effects of its decision to require employees to complete new I-9 forms, a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) administrative law judge (ALJ) recently ruled. The decision serves as a reminder of the broad scope of the duty to bargain under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).

Facts

Frontier Communications Corporation provides telecommunications services. In 2010, it purchased several Verizon properties, including locations in West Virginia where the nonsupervisory employees were represented by the Communications Workers of America, District 2-13. It assumed Verizon's collective bargaining obligations at the time of the 2010 transaction. As of 2019, there were approximately 1,300 employees in the bargaining unit, spread across 100 work locations in Virginia and West Virginia.

In 2013, Frontier discovered it didn't have I-9 immigration forms for most of the former Verizon employees. It therefore requested they complete new I-9 forms. When the union found out about the request, it met with the company, and they both agreed Frontier would get new I-9 forms but not retain the supporting documentation.

In late 2018, Frontier conducted an internal I-9 audit and discovered extensive noncompliance. It determined it needed to obtain new I-9 forms and supporting documentation from approximately 95 percent of all employees hired between 1986 and 2018. On July 19, 2019, it notified its employees of the need to submit new I-9 forms and directed them to do so through I-9 Advantage, its new electronic I-9 provider.