Utah creates loophole to encourage use of more illegal alien's, workers no longer covered under workman's compensation, employers skate

clip from The Salt Lake Tribune article "Insurance loophole makes it easy for employers to exploit illegal workers" by Paul Rolley (7/26/08):

The law basically allows Workers Comp, or any other insurer that covers injured-worker benefits, to cancel disability payments to someone hurt on the job if it is shown that person has committed a crime, including being in the country illegally.

But, get this, there is no provision in the law to sanction the employer for hiring someone who is in the country illegally, and the injured worker denied the disability benefits cannot pay an attorney to represent him or her against the insurance company's actions, according to Labor Commission rules.

Call it the employer have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too bill.

Under the new law, and its interpretation by the Labor Commission, a construction company, say, can hire laborers to perform dangerous manual jobs and if a laborer gets hurt the company can escape liability by having the insurance company throw out the benefits if the employee cannot prove he or she is in the country legally. And, the employer isn't sanctioned for having certified the employee was legally eligible for work when he or she was hired in the first place.

Opponents of the law say it encourages employers to hire illegal immigrants because it guarantees not having its insurance company be liable, affecting its premiums, in case the worker is injured on the job.

In fact, the South Carolina Supreme Court said just that in a recent ruling against a similar law passed in that state.

Maybe I'm in the wrong field, with all the protections that companies have avoiding the use of American and legal labor, I could make a mint.

If they were in any way sincere, the employer would have to be liable directly if they hired the illegal alien, but no, that isn't good business.

This reminds me of another recent bill that was floating around Kansas, where it was proposed that any organization that help illegal aliens and collected dues would be subjected to fines of up to $2,000 USD, while the employer who hired them went without penalty.

Of course it took the vote of 19 Republicans in Kansas to pass the bill, you can read the entire article here entitled "KS: State passes bill that will encourage more illegal immigration and punishes unions who try to help the workers"(4/20/08):

This is a new low for the Kansas Senate. A majority of them are happy to turn a blind eye to the hiring of illegal aliens and will use immigration reform to bust unions.

So here is the scenario:

• An employer, knowing that he will not be punished for hiring an illegal, puts the illegal alien to work side by side with unionized American workers.
• The union, believing that the employer would not hire illegal aliens (that is illegal, you know), signs the employee up as a member of the union.
• The union is now subject to criminal action and fines even though the union has no ability to verify the legal status of a worker

This is getting worse people, spread the word.Republicans, while pretending to want to close the borders, do everything in their power to allow the use of illegal aliens.