Agricultural Personnel Management Program
University of California

1/30/03  News Report -- The Chicago Tribune

Target stores in the Chicago area have begun rehiring some of the more than 100 Hispanic employees recently fired because of Social Security discrepancies, officials from a community group said Wednesday.

Emma Lozano of Centro Sin Fronteras, a Chicago advocacy organization, estimated that 20 people had been rehired at Target stores in Lombard and Wood Dale.

Although Target officials were not able to confirm that, spokeswoman Carolyn Brookter said the company is working with Lozano and others to straighten out the situation.

"We've agreed to at least give some extensions to some people and continue to try to assist them," said Brookter, who is based at the chain's headquarters in Minneapolis. "In the end we aren't looking to get rid of people. We need these people to work."

The problem started when Target received "no-match" letters from the Social Security Administration regarding several Chicago-area employees. The letters are sent when information on an employee's W-2 form--names, birth dates, Social Security numbers--don't match agency records.

Last year, businesses received letters informing them that more than 800,000 workers nationwide had such discrepancies.

Lozano said the letters led to the firing of more than 100 employees from 10 area Target stores.

The letters are intended to update records and cannot be used as grounds for dismissal, she said. They have no bearing on a person's immigration status and are not shared with the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

"No-match letters say there's a discrepancy. They are to notify the employee to rectify it," Lozano said. "It clearly says they are not supposed to use it to fire them."

About 40 Latinos protested the firings last week outside a Target in Vernon Hills.

Chris Bergin, an attorney with Centro Sin Fronteras, said Target officials met the next day with him and U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.).

"They wound up agreeing to a moratorium on continued firings through March 1 until they can figure things out more," Bergin said.

Brookter said the company has been working with the Chicago community group and Gutierrez.

Target officials have been sent to the remaining eight stores to review the firings, Bergin said. "They're going to see what they can do," he said. "There might be a few that they might not be able to rehire because they actually admitted that they're here illegally."

Scott Frotman, a spokesman for Gutierrez, said the congressman hopes to continue working with the retail industry and colleagues in Congress to help employers understand that no-match letters are for record keeping and aren't meant as a basis for firing someone.

He also plans to keep working with Target officials, possibly meeting them again as early as next week.

"He's looking to bring in experts from the Social Security Administration and the IRS to explain the appropriate response an employer should take when they receive no-match letters," Frotman said.