Hoffman Plastic Compounds (Rehnquist w/ O’Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas)

1. Hoffman Plastic Compounds(Rehnquist w/ O’Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas) • Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986, among other things, makes it unlawful for individual to obtain employment through fraudulent documents • Employee laid off in violation of Section 8(a)(3) but not legally entitled to work in the United States and who gained employment by fraudulent means not entitled to back pay under NLRA where employer unaware of employee’s illegal status • Board remedies may not conflict with other statutes • Back pay to illegally employed individual would • conflict with IRCA • pay employee for work employee not entitled to perform • when employee did not perform it • condone future violations of IRCA by employees be rewarding illegal employees for escaping detection

2. Dissent(Breyer w/ Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg) • Back pay to the point at which employer learned that employee was illegally employed deters violations of NLRA without compromising IRCA • Denial of back pay may encourage employers to hire illegals knowing that illegal status may immunize employer from a back pay remedy • An NLRA “advantage” to ers for hiring illegals • No conflict between IRCA and NLRA • Reads legislative history of IRCA as not limiting discretion of NLRB to enforce NLRA • Sit-down strike and mutiny cases not relevant because employees in those cases were lawfully discharged