DALLAS, TX. (March 26, 2009) – Staff One, Inc., a leading provider of HR Outsourcing solutions, today announced a new program that will help small and medium-sized companies optimize their Human Resources costs, stay current with new employment laws and gain access to benefits typically enjoyed by much larger companies.

The Staff One HR Outsourcing Business Stimulus Program is designed for businesses with fewer than 750 employees. Participants in the program will receive a wide array of HR services that are typically only available to FORTUNE 500 companies.

For additional details on the program, companies can visit www.staffone.com/stimulus. To qualify for the program, companies must contact Staff One prior to April 15, 2009 and become a client by June 1, 2009. Existing clients are not eligible for the program.

To read the full press release, click here.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has submitted to the Federal Register an interim final rule that revises the list of documents acceptable for the Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, process. The revised form will improve the security of the employment authorization verification process.  Your company will be required to use the revised form for all new hires and to re-verify any employee with expiring employment authorization beginning on April 3, 2009.

The revised Form I-9 reflects changes made to the list of documents acceptable for Form I-9 in accordance with the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) recent interim final rule. The rule furthers DHS’s ongoing effort to increase the security of the employment authorization verification process.

What is the difference between the revised Form I-9 and the old one?

The biggest difference in the revised Form I-9 is that all documents presented during the verification process must be unexpired. Other than several technical updates, the following documents have been added or removed:

Two documents have been added to List A (Documents that Establish Both Identity and Employment Authorization) on the List of Acceptable Documents:

• A temporary I-551 printed notation on a machine-readable immigrant visa in addition to the foreign passport with a temporary I-551 stamp; and
• A passport from the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) or the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) with a valid Form I-94 or Form I-94A indicating nonimmigrant admission under the Compact of Free Association Between the United States and the FSM or RMI.

Three documents were removed from List A of the List of Acceptable Documents:

• Form I-688, Temporary Resident Card;
• Form I-688A, Employment Authorization Card; and
• Form I-688B, Employment Authorization Card.

Beginning April 3, 2009, your company may only accept documents listed on the List of Acceptable Documents on the revised Form I-9. When an employee must be re-verified because his or her employment authorization has expired, you should ensure that they use the revised Form I-9 with its new List of Acceptable Documents. You cannot re-verify the employee by completing Section 3 – Updating and Re-verification on a previous version of the Form I-9.

The current edition of Form I-9, dated 06/05/2007, will no longer be valid for use on or after April 3, 2009.  Employers who continue to use the 06/05/2007 edition of Form I-9 on or after that date may be subject to civil money penalties.

The revised I-9 will be available on the Staff One online forms repository beginning on April 3, 2009.

For more details on employment eligibility verification, you can visit the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website at www.uscis.gov.

The new ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA) became effective January 1, 2009 with significant changes to the ADA’s definition of a “disability”.  The ADAAA retains the basic definition of “disability” as an impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities.  However, the ADAAA broadens the definition of “disability” by expanding the definition of “major life activities, redefining who is “regarded as” having a disability, modifying the regulatory definition of “substantially limits”, specifying that “disability” includes any impairment that is episodic or in remission if it would substantially limit a major life activity when active; and prohibiting consideration of the ameliorative effects of “mitigating measures” when assessing whether an impairment substantially limits a person’s major life activities with one exception. 

The one exception to the rule is the use of “ordinary eyeglasses or contact lenses”, when determining whether a person is substantially limited in the major life activity of seeing.  The person’s vision should be assessed in its corrected state when using eyeglasses or contact lenses.    

The ADAAA also adds a new provision that restricts employers’ use of qualification standards, tests, or other selection criteria that are based on uncorrected vision standards; clarifies that an individual who satisfy only the “regarded as” prong of the definition of disability is not entitled to “reasonable accommodation”; and modifies the language of the ADA’s “General Rule” that prohibited discrimination against “a qualified individual with a disability because of the disability of such individual”.

By NAPEO Staff
A little-discussed provision of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) substantially expands whistleblower protections with regard to any activity by entities involved in the stimulus funds. Known as the McCaskill Amendment, Section 1553 extends to those contracting with entities receiving stimulus funds, even when only a portion of the activities are covered by the funds. The protection covers any disclosure by a person to a newly created oversight board, an inspector general, a government agency, a court, or a grand jury if the employee reasonably believes there is gross mismanagement of any agency contract or grant involving the funds, a gross waste of the funds, a substantial danger to public health or safety, an abuse of authority, or a violation of law, rule, or regulation. Protected disclosures will include those made in the ordinary course of an employee’s duties. The law prohibits waivers or releases of the rights and remedies in any agreement (including any pre-dispute arbitration agreement). Covered employers will be required to post notice of these rights.