E-Verify is Coming! E-Verify is Coming! (to Tennessee, that is)

If you do business and have employees in Tennessee, a law signed by Governor Haslam last week could impact the method by which you verify your applicants’ authorization to work in the United States.

Under the new law (known as the Tennessee Lawful Employment Act), all employers are required:

 

1. Before October 1, 2011, to enroll and maintain active participation in the E-Verify program;
2. On or after October 1, 2011, to verify the work authorization status of each employee hired on or after October 1, 2011, by using the E-Verify program; and
3. On or after October 1, 2011, to maintain records of all results generated by the E-Verify program pursuant to the work authorization status check required by this bill.

If you use independent contractors, the contractor must present a valid Tennessee driver’s license, and you must maintain a copy of it. If the contractor has a license from another state, that is acceptable provided it is a state whose issuance requirements are at least as strict as Tennessee’s.

 

We will have a blog post discussing this legislation in more detail in the coming week.