Rights. State agencies cannot accept bids or proposals on purchases or contracts exceeding $100,000 from Minnesota vendors unless the Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Rights has received the vendor’s affirmative action plan for the employment of minority persons, women, and disabled individuals. State agencies cannot make awards exceeding $100,000 to Minnesota vendors unless the Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Rights has approved the vendor’s affirmative action plan and issued a certificate of compliance to the vendor. Vendors who have more than 40 employees in the state in which their principal place of business is located, will be required to certify that the business is in compliance with federal affirmative action requirements in order to receive awards exceeding $100,000. The Minnesota Department of Human Rights charges a $75 fee for each certificate of compliance issued. In addition, under the Women’s Economic Security Act (WESA), an employer with 40 or more full time employees in Minnesota must obtain an equal pay certificate from the State if it does business with the State in excess of $500,000. This certificate is good for four years. The Minnesota Department of Human rights is responsible for enforcing compliance. The cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul have city ordinances which require compliance with their specific affirmative action requirements. The Minneapolis Department of Civil Rights and the St. Paul Department of Human Rights are the agencies which enforce the respective city ordinances. Other cities or counties in Minnesota also may have affirmative action or equal employment opportunity requirements for businesses who contract with them. The entity awarding the contract should be able to inform the business of its affirmative action requirements.
IMMIGRATION LAW COMPLIANCE
The federal Immigration and Nationality Act (18 U.S.C. § 1324a) requires employers to verify that all persons they hire are legally authorized to work in the United States. The law also prohibits employers from knowingly hiring or continuing to employ persons not authorized to work in the United States as well as knowingly contracting for work by someone not authorized to work in the United States. The law applies to all employers, regardless of the number of employees they have, and to all individuals hired after November 6, 1986. Note that merely because a person holds a visa authorizing entrance into the United States, that person does not necessarily have authorization to be employed in the United States. It is the employer’s responsibility to determine whether a person has that authorization to work in the United States. (Most functions of the former U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service have been transferred to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and divided into separate agencies. INS immigration services are now part of the Bureau of Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) and INS enforcement activities are part of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) within the Directorate of Border and Transportation Security.) Employment verification is documented on Form I-9, available from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, I-9 Central. The law requires the employer to ensure that every employee completes Section 1 of Form I-9 at the time the employee begins work. The law also requires the employer, within three days of hire, to review the documents establishing the employee‘s identity and eligibility to work and to properly complete Section 2 of Form I-9. The documents that satisfy the verification requirements are listed on Form I-9.
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