U.S. Department of Labor issues final rule on H-2A changes
The Department of Labor has published a long-expected final rule that the agency said will modernize the H-2A guest agricultural worker program.
The 700-page rule will be effective 30 days after it is published in the Federal Register. The rule is available online but the Department of Labor did not say when it would be published in the Federal Register; the agency said Jan. 15 it would be published “at a later date.”
In July 2019, the Department of Labor began the process for changes to the H-2A program. The agency said it reviewed more than 80,000 comments about the proposed changes.
“We are pleased that nearly 16 months after the close of the comment period, the Trump administration is moving forward with significant changes in the H-2A regulations,” said Michael Marsh, president and CEO of the National Council of Agricultural Employers. “While much of the new regulation should drive efficiency in the process, we remain concerned regarding several troubling aspects that we shared with the administration in our comments. We look forward to the rule’s final publication in the Federal Register.”
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said in a statement that the final rule will go a long way in ensuring American farmers have access to a stable and skilled workforce and remove unnecessary bureaucratic processes.
“USDA’s goal is to help farmers navigate the complex H-2A program that is administered by Department of Labor, Department of Homeland Security, and the State Department so hiring a farm worker is an easier process,” Perdue said in the statement. “These modernizations make the federal government more responsive to our customers, ensuring American agriculture continues to lead the world for years to come.”
Perdue said the rule will streamline the H-2A application process by mandating electronic filing of job orders and applications, and it adds flexibility to cut down on unnecessary burdens on the agricultural employers using the program. That includes the ability to stagger the entry of workers into the country over a 120-day period and allowing employers to file a single application for different dates instead of multiple applications.
The rule strengthen protections for workers, according to the Department of Labor, by enhancing housing and public accommodation standards, strengthening surety bond requirements and expanding enforcement rules, allowing the government to ban companies with substantial violations. It also allows workers for farmers who can’t offer full-time work the ability to file a single application by consolidating jobs at other farms.
“This final rule will streamline and simplify the H-2A application process, strengthen protections for U.S. and foreign workers, and ease unnecessary burdens on employers,” the Department of Labor’s Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training John Pallasch said in a news release.
Bruce Goldstein, President of Farmworker Justice, is critical of the rule’s wage freeze.
The Department of Labor, he said in a news release, restated its intention to freeze the H-2A’s main wage rate for two years and then use a formula to calculate wages. That could reduce wages by $1.6 billion or more over ten years, according to the release. The wage decision, issued by the Department of Labor in November, is under a preliminary injunction as a result of a lawsuit by the United Farm Workers.
“On an initial review of the new regulations, we do not see a focused effort by the Department of Labor to eradicate the H-2A program’s rampant wage theft, retaliation, unsafe job sites and exploitative working conditions,” Goldstein said in the release.
