2-12-2010 - The U.S. Secretary of Labor, Hilda L. Solis announced major changes regarding the H-2A program.  The H-2A program allows U.S. and foreign workers temporary agricultural employment at farms. Part of the changes announced state that companies that seek H-2A visas for agricultural workers have to provide documented evidence that they have looked for qualified U.S. citizens to fill the jobs.   In the past, employers simply had to attest that they were unable to find qualified U.S. workers.  Also, the Department of Labor, through its Employment and training Administration, must certify that the employment of foreign workers will not have an adverse effect on the wages and working conditions of similarly employed U.S. workers.

With the new rule, the Department of Labor is trying to ensure 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.  The DOL also believes the new rule will lead to transparency by creating a national electronic job registry where job orders will be posted through 50 percent of the contract period.  The new rule also  prohibits cost-shifting from the employer to the worker for recruitment fees, visa fees, border crossing fees and other U.S. government mandated fees.
 
Last year, employers filed 8,150 labor certification applications requesting 103,955 H-2A workers for temporary employment. The Department of Labor certified 94 percent of the applications submitted for a total of 86,014 workers.

The new rule goes into effect March 15, 2010.