Meat+Poultry - July 2019 - 94

LABOR

Demystifying no-match letters
Many employers still recall opening
a letter from the Social Security
Administration (SSA) informing them
that the name or Social Security
number (SSN) reported on a recent
wage report does not match a name
or SSN in the SSA's records. At times
the letter listed numerous individuals
with a mismatch. The question
for employers was what to do and
when to do it. The answers were not
always clear.
NOW WHAT?
So, the question of what to do and
when upon receiving a no-match
letter will again arise very soon. The
guidance on what an employer must
do is provided in the SSA's Frequently
Asked Questions about no-match
letters. What must be done is relatively
clear. The first step is to try "to confirm
that a reporting or input error is not
the cause of a no-match." To do this,
the employer, in conjunction with the
employee, should try to confirm that
the name and SSN submitted correctly
reflect the employee's name and SSN.
This can be accomplished by a brief
meeting with the employee to review
the relevant documents. If no error
in the information is apparent, the

employer should refer the employee
to the local SSA office to attempt to
resolve the no-match. The step of
attempting to confirm apparent errors
in name or SSN should occur relatively
quickly after receipt of a no-match
letter. While no specific time frame is
mandated, an employer wants to act
reasonably to such a government notice
in case questions arise later regarding
the employer's conduct and whether
they employed someone that was not
authorized to work.
CAUSES
One of the more frequently asked
questions involving such letters is what
causes a mismatch. There are a variety
of possible causes, including simple
reporting errors by an employer or
employee. The error may merely be
transposed numbers, missing numbers,
name errors or typing errors. In some
cases, the mismatch results from input
errors by SSA staff. It may also be the
result of serious misconduct such as
identity theft or fraud. A name change
by the employee, usually because the
employee recently married, is usually
a more common cause of a no-match
letter. Employees that have hyphenated
last names also seem to receive no-

match letters more frequently. Ultimately, the discrepancy must be resolved.
If it is a simple errant recording
the employer can correct its records
and submit Form W-2c, a Corrected
Wage and Tax Statement. Sometimes
employees merely quit or fail to
respond when confronted about the
mismatch by the employer. On some
rare occasions an employee will admit
to being unauthorized to work. The
only reasonable employer response at
that point is immediate termination.
And in some cases, an employee
may claim that after checking with
SSA, they are unable to explain the
discrepancy. Here an employer can
either risk continuing to employ the
individual or terminate employment
and hope that no viable legal complaint
is raised.
A no-match letter is not evidence
that an employee lacks work
authorization. It is clear that a nomatch letter, in and of itself, cannot
constitute "constructive knowledge"
of lack of work authorization. Only
the Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS)
can make such a legal conclusion,
which usually involves a totality of the
circumstances review. If an employer
were to rely upon the no-match letter
as a basis for taking adverse action
against the employee at issue, it could
violate the anti-discrimination rules of
the Immigration and Nationality Act.
RICHARD ALANIZ | meatpoultry@sosland.com

94

MEAT+ POULTRY | 07.19 | www.meatpoultry.com

chuck - stock.adobe.com

It may be the result of
serious misconduct
such as identity theft
or fraud.
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Meat+Poultry - July 2019

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