U.S. Department of Labor Proposes Rules to Modernize H-2A Program

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/02-06-2008/0004750706&EDATE=

WASHINGTON, Feb. 6 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The U.S. Department of
Labor's Employment and Training Administration (ETA) and Employment
Standards Administration (ESA) today jointly proposed rules to modernize
the H-2A program for employing foreign workers in temporary or seasonal
agricultural jobs.

"This issue must be addressed now, or our country will see eroding
competitiveness in its agricultural sector, crops being left to rot in the
fields, and increasing shifting of domestic food production to overseas,"
said Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao. "These proposed changes to the H-2A
program will provide farmers with an orderly and timely flow of legal
workers and increase protections for both U.S. and foreign workers."

This package of proposed changes follows the administration's
announcement that the Labor Department would review the program's current
regulations, most of which have not been updated in more than 20 years, and
propose changes to provide the nation's farmers with an orderly and timely
flow of legal workers while protecting the rights of both U.S. and H-2A
workers.

During this review, the department identified a number of practices
that have contributed to making the program difficult to use. Currently,
only a little more than 75,000 workers participate in the H-2A program,
while there are an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 illegal immigrant workers
on America's farms.

The proposed changes will modernize the broken H-2A program so that it
can serve its intended purpose of providing farm employers with a legal
means to hire agricultural workers when no U.S. workers can be found. The
methodology for calculating wages for H-2A workers would be revised to
better reflect wages by locality, occupation and skill level. More
precisely tailoring H-2A wages to the condition of local labor markets will
better protect the wages and working conditions of U.S. workers.


FULL story at link.