Hiring Ag Workers Becomes More Difficult
Farm Operations Affected
Bryan Little, director of labor affairs for the California Farm Bureau Federation, says the new ruling will have an impact on farm operations in the state.
"Congress intended for this program to be able to provide growers with a reasonable safety valve to make sure they have an adequate number of legal workers when they can't recruit them in any other way," he says.
"What the Department of Labor is doing with the new rule is effectively shutting off that safety valve."
Little says a relatively small number of California producers use the H-2A program now, and the new rule "is going to make it very difficult" for them to continue using the program.
In changing the program, the Department of Labor focused on the process for obtaining labor certifications and protections afforded to the temporary foreign workers and the domestic agricultural work force. The new rule ensures that U.S. workers in the same occupation working for the same employer, regardless of date of hire, receive no less than the same wage as foreign workers.
"In some places, wages will go up and in some places, they won't," says Little. "It depends on where you were with the system that was in place and the time that this rule goes into effect."
source : cottonfarming
Farm Operations Affected
Bryan Little, director of labor affairs for the California Farm Bureau Federation, says the new ruling will have an impact on farm operations in the state.
"Congress intended for this program to be able to provide growers with a reasonable safety valve to make sure they have an adequate number of legal workers when they can't recruit them in any other way," he says.
"What the Department of Labor is doing with the new rule is effectively shutting off that safety valve."
Little says a relatively small number of California producers use the H-2A program now, and the new rule "is going to make it very difficult" for them to continue using the program.
In changing the program, the Department of Labor focused on the process for obtaining labor certifications and protections afforded to the temporary foreign workers and the domestic agricultural work force. The new rule ensures that U.S. workers in the same occupation working for the same employer, regardless of date of hire, receive no less than the same wage as foreign workers.
"In some places, wages will go up and in some places, they won't," says Little. "It depends on where you were with the system that was in place and the time that this rule goes into effect."
source : cottonfarming
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