By Mark Carter - 1/31/2011
A slow week at the 88th General Assembly was still big for contractors.
Rep. Jim Nickels' proposal, House Bill 1013, concerning contractors and the hiring of illegal resident workers was run but pulled to consider an amendment. It's expected to be on the House State Agencies & Governmental Affairs Committee agenda again this week.
The Sherwood Democrat's measure would grant the state Contractors Licensing Board the authority to police the practice of hiring illegal aliens by contractors. The bill would authorize the board to take action against a contractor believed to have hired illegal workers, including imposing civil penalties of up to $200 a day per violation and even revoking licenses. It would relieve contractors of any liability if they used the federal E-Verify system to check workers' legal status.
Rep. Ann Clemmer, R-Benton, offered an amendment to the bill that would relieve contractors of any liability when a subcontractor hires illegals, so long as the contractor and sub each signed a written agreement stating the sub would be responsible for verifying the legal status of workers he or she hires.
CLB Administrator Greg Crow told Arkansas Business that the board was taking a neutral stance on Nickels' bill. "We'll do whatever the law tells us to do," he said.
Two years ago, Nickels sponsored a similar bill that failed to advance from the House Public Health, Welfare & Labor Committee. The CLB and industry representatives opposed it then.
While the CLB is neutral on HB1013, the following professional organizations remain opposed to the bill: the Arkansas Home Builders Association, the Arkansas chapter of the Associated General Contractors of America and the local chapter of Associated Builders & Contractors.
Sylvester Smith, director of the National Federation for Independent Business in Arkansas, signed up to speak against the bill last week. But Nickels pulled the bill before he got the chance. Smith told Arkansas Business that the bill would set a bad precedent and was burdensome not only to contractors but potentially to all business owners.
"The notion that a contractor could be held liable for the hiring practices of a subcontractor is bad public policy," he said. "All business owners should be concerned about this approach, because it won't end in the contracting world. I can easily imagine a day in which a property management firm is fined $200 per day for the 100 days that a janitorial company it hired to clean a building had an illegal immigrant working for them."
Smith said Clemmer's amendment makes the bill more palatable, but doesn't address all of his concerns.
Nickels said he would add Clemmer's amendment if it required subs to verify workers' legal status through E-Verify, which has been criticized as unreliable by many contractors. Nickels and Clemmer agreed to meet and hammer it out before this week's meeting.
This time around, State Agencies (of which Nickels is a member) seems open to the legislation, and given the probability of adding Clemmer's amendment, the odds of the bill advancing out of committee to the full House appear favorable.
