Opinion ID: 1189782
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Turnaround Time

Text: Second, and related, is the extremely short time period in which the workers were told they should respond before they would be fired. Both parties spin the record to some degree  SEIU says the workers had only three days to respond, while Aramark stretches the period to 90 days. In fact, workers were told they had three days from the postmark of a letter from Aramark to return with further documentation  either a new social security card, or a verification form from SSA that a new card was being processed. If the worker returned with the verification form, they would still have to provide a new card within 90 days. This adds up to an extremely demanding policy. The initial three-day deadline was from the post-mark of the letter from Aramark, so, given at least one day in the mail, it meant workers had at most two days to respond. And in these two days, the workers were expected to gather information that would prove to SSA that they were entitled to a social security number, perhaps obtain legal representation, and navigate their way to a SSA office during business hours while still attending to whatever work and family obligations they had. It seems entirely possible  even likely  that many of the Staples Center employees concluded they could not meet the initial deadline, and then simply stopped trying. Nothing in the record indicates otherwise, and indeed nothing indicates that the workers understood beforehand that they would actually have seven to ten days before their terminations became effective. [7] Notably, and contrary to Aramark's contention, its reverification policy was significantly more accelerated than the one envisioned by the federal safe harbor regulations (which, as we mentioned above, were promulgated after the arbitrator's ruling in this case and are currently subject to a preliminary injunction). As currently written, employers would qualify for the safe-harbor (that is, not be subject to prosecution on a constructive knowledge theory) so long as they asked the employees to provide further documentation from the SSA within 90 days of the date the employer received the no-match letter. See 8 C.F.R. § 274a.1( l )(2)(i)(B). [8] Nothing requires the employer to demand action of any kind before 90 days, including any verification form indicating that the employee has contacted SSA. Moreover, even if the employee cannot resolve the discrepancy within 90 days, the employer can still qualify for the safe-harbor if it completes a new Form I-9 for the employee (using documents that do not depend on the disputed social security number). See id. § 274a.1( l )(2)(iii). Had the safe-harbor provision been in effect, Aramark could easily still have qualified for it when it fired the Staples Center employees. This weighs strongly against constructive notice here.