Worker rights activists in Madison are launching a campaign to press a national laundry services company to refrain from laying off workers whose name and Social Security number don't match records at the Social Security Administration.
Cintas Corp. is jumping the gun on a Department of Homeland Security proposal that may never become law, said Patrick Hickey, director of the Interfaith Coalition for Worker Justice in Madison.
"We're trying to get them to put the brakes on," Hickey said. "This regulation may not ever go into effect, and in the meantime they're disrupting a lot of lives."
The Cincinnati-based company has a laundry and uniform supply plant on Vondron Road on the city's east side where 50 to 60 workers are employed, he said.
Hickey said 15 of those workers would be affected by the policy, part of 400 workers nationwide who could be laid off with the policy.
A proposed new federal regulation encourages employers to release workers who do not clear up discrepancies with their Social Security numbers.
But the proposed rule is not yet law, as Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat who is ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, pointed out in a Nov. 2 letter to Cintas CEO Scott Farmer.
The proposed rule could be changed drastically, or killed, in the rule-making process, Thompson wrote.
Thompson and the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission warned that threatening layoffs for Social Security mismatches on an incomplete regulation could violate non-discrimination law.
Company spokesman Mike Wallner said: "Cintas has a responsibility to ensure that employees are legally able to work in the United States."
Workers for whom the Social Security Administration issues a "mismatch letter" have 63 days to clear up the discrepancy, Wallner said.
Workers who don't are put on indefinite administrative leave, and are allowed to return to their original jobs when they produce required documentation, he said.
The deadline for the Madison workers is Nov. 27.
Local Cintas workers said they've received "no-match" letters in the past but continued to work, Hickey said.
Wallner said he did not know if they company had changed its policy.
The South Central Federation of Labor has joined the campaign against the Cintas policy, encouraging its members to e-mail or fax messages to company executives decrying it as "unnecessary and immoral."
Worker Justice activists plan to visit local companies that use Cintas services next week and picket, and hand out leaflets over the Thanksgiving holiday to inform the public of the issue.
"We want to let the community know what they're up to," Hickey said.