Hoffman Plastic Compounds, Inc. v. National Labor Relations Board, 535 U.S. 137 (2002), is a United States labor law decision in which the Supreme Court of the United States denied an award of back pay to an undocumented worker, José Castro, who had been laid off for participating in a union organizing campaign at Hoffman Plastics Compounds plant, along with several other employees.

Three years later, the NLRB found Hoffman Plastics to be in violation of section 8(a)(3)[4] of the NLRA and awarded Castro back pay and reinstatement at Hoffman Plastics, but at an administrative law judge hearing to decide how much back pay should be awarded to the parties involved, Castro admitted that he had entered the country illegally and used a friend's birth certificate to obtain the documents needed to gain employment.

One of its most important sections is section 7, which gives employees rights to organize labor unions without the fear of retaliation from their employer: "Employees shall the right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid and protection.

"[5] The National Labor Relations Board brought the case to the Supreme Court with its determination based on the Wagner Act was violated by Hoffman Plastics for firing Castro and others for contributing to the Union organizing at the plant.

Section 7 entitles workers to organize or join a union if they are so desired, and protection is provided also by the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights in the US Constitution.

The Act added many new provisions for the purpose of requirements and punishments of the US immigrant workforce and served for the illegal documentation of the worker Jose Castro when he used a friends birth certificate for identification.

In dissent, Justice Breyer wrote: I cannot agree that the backpay award before us "runs counter to," or "trenches upon," national immigration policy.

As all the relevant agencies (including the Department of Justice) have told us, the National Labor Relations Board's limited backpay order will not interfere with the implementation of immigration policy.

To permit the Board to award backpay could not significantly increase the strength of this magnetic force, for so speculative a future possibility could not realistically influence an individual's decision to migrate illegally.

That denial lowers the cost to the employer of an initial labor law violation (provided, of course, that the only victims are illegal aliens).

Were the Board forbidden to assess backpay against a knowing employer-a circumstance not before us today, see 237 F.3d 639, 648 (CADC 2001)-this perverse economic incentive, which runs directly contrary to the immigration statute's basic objective, would be obvious and serious.

also General Accounting Office, Garment Industry: Efforts to Address the Prevalence and Conditions of Sweatshops 8 (GAOl HEHS-95-29, Nov. 1994) (noting a higher incidence of labor violations in areas with large populations of undocumented aliens).