This
is Important for farmers or other ag businesses who hire temporary
employees!!
February 11, 2010|By P.J.
Huffstutter
In a move that is sure to have the agriculture industry grimacing and
labor-rights advocates cheering, the Labor Department is reversing a Bush
administration rule that allowed farmers an easier path to hiring temporary or
seasonal foreign workers.
The department has issued new regulations that will require growers to take
more steps to try to find Americans to fill jobs picking crops and other
harvest-time roles, as well as increase pay and provide more job-safety
protections for the thousands of foreign farmworkers they do hire.
The old rule, which affected the H-2A guest-worker program, was adopted
shortly before President George W. Bush left office. The Labor Department
suspended that regulation in May.
The new rule, slated to take effect March 15, will increase the average pay
for temporary farmworkers by nearly a dollar per hour. Farmers also will be
required to list their job openings on a new online job registry, and state
workforce agencies must inspect worker housing before employers can get the nod
to hire foreign laborers.
Department officials said Thursday that the changes were designed to protect
the agriculture industry's most at-risk workers.
"This new rule will make it possible for all workers who are working
hard on American soil to receive fair pay while at the same time expand opportunities
for
Even when unemployment rates are high, finding temporary or seasonal workers
remains a concern for the agriculture industry. During fiscal 2009, employers
filed 8,150 labor certification applications requesting 103,955 H-2A workers
for temporary agricultural work. The Labor Department certified 94% of the
applications, for a total of 86,014 workers.
The Bush-era rule, which let employers hire foreign workers if they couldn't
find Americans to fill the jobs, sparked a fierce battle across the country's
farmlands. Labor advocacy groups railed against the rule for slashing wages and
weakening worker safety rules.
Farmers have said they need help easing the hurdles to bring in foreign
workers to harvest crops, saying
Last year a group of growers associations -- including the National
Christmas Tree Assn., the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Assn. and more than a
dozen others -- filed suit against the Labor and Homeland Security departments,
alleging that they could be unfairly prosecuted for labor law violations.
p.j.huffstutter@ latimes.com
The Associated Press contributed to this report.