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Migration Jurisprudence from the South › United States

Case No. 2227 (United States): remedies for undocumented workers after Hoffman Plastic

ILO Committee on Freedom of Association · United States · 2003-11 · International body

Citation: Report No. 332
Type of case: Constitutional and human rights
Outcome: Decided for the migrant side

Question

Does denying back pay to undocumented workers dismissed for union activity meet freedom of association standards?

What the court decided

No. Without back pay, the remaining remedies did not adequately protect undocumented workers against anti-union discrimination.

In plain language

After the US Supreme Court denied back pay to an undocumented worker fired for organising, unions complained to the ILO. The ILO committee said the remaining remedies were not enough.

Dalam bahasa sederhana

Setelah MA AS menolak upah tertunggak bagi pekerja tanpa dokumen yang dipecat karena berserikat, serikat pekerja mengadu ke ILO. Komite ILO menyatakan sisa pemulihan tidak memadai.

Pertanyaan: Apakah menolak upah tertunggak bagi pekerja tanpa dokumen yang dipecat karena berserikat memenuhi standar kebebasan berserikat?

What happened afterwards

  • 2003-11: Conclusions adopted.

Sources

Open this decision in the interactive collection (compare, filter, Indonesian view, downloads).

Cite as: Institute for Migrant Rights (2026), Migration Jurisprudence from the South, version 0.1, https://theimr.org/court-decisions/d/ilo-cfa-2227-2003/. This page summarizes a court decision for research and advocacy; it is not legal advice.

For researchers

This collection of decisions is built for empirical legal scholarship and socio-legal research on migration and the rights of migrant workers, as well as for advocacy.

The coded variables support statistical analysis in law: cross-national comparison, regression and event-history designs, and law and economics questions such as how recruitment fees, wage protection and limits on changing employer affect migrant workers. The data can be downloaded for replication.

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