Labor Department, Employment and Training Administration, Wage and Hour Division
The Department of Labor (Department or DOL) is amending its regulations governing the certification of agricultural labor or services to be performed by temporary foreign workers in H-2A nonimmigrant status (H-2A workers) and enforcement of the contractual obligations applicable to employers of such nonimmigrant workers. These regulations are consistent with the Secretary of Labor's (Secretary) statutory responsibility to certify that there are not sufficient able, willing, and qualified workers available to fill the petitioning employer's job opportunity, and that the employment of H-2A workers in that job opportunity will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of workers in the United States similarly employed. Among the issues addressed in this final rule are improving the minimum standards and conditions of employment that employers must offer to workers; expanding the Department's authority to use enforcement tools, such as program debarment for substantial violations of program requirements; modernizing the process by which the Department receives and processes employers' job orders and applications for temporary agricultural labor certifications, including the recruitment of United States workers (U.S. workers); and revising the standards and procedures for determining the prevailing wage rate. This final rule will strengthen protections for workers, modernize and simplify the H- 2A application and temporary labor certification process, and ease regulatory burdens on employers.
Document Headings Document headings vary by document type but may contain the following: the agency or agencies that issued and signed a document the number of the CFR title and the number of each part the document amends, proposes to amend, or is directly related to the agency docket number / agency internal file number the RIN which identifies each regulatory action listed in the Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions See the Document Drafting Handbook for more details. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration Wage and Hour Division 20 CFR Parts 653 and 655 29 CFR Part 501 [DOL Docket No. ETA-2019-0007] RIN 1205-AB89 AGENCY: Employment and Training Administration and Wage and Hour Division, Department of Labor. ACTION: Final rule. SUMMARY: The Department of Labor (Department or DOL) is amending its regulations governing the certification of agricultural labor or services to be performed by temporary foreign workers in H-2A nonimmigrant status (H-2A workers) and enforcement of the contractual obligations applicable to employers of such nonimmigrant workers. These regulations are consistent with the Secretary of Labor's (Secretary) statutory responsibility to certify that there are not sufficient able, willing, and qualified workers available to fill the petitioning employer's job opportunity, and that the employment of H-2A workers in that job opportunity will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of workers in the United States similarly employed. Among the issues addressed in this final rule are improving the minimum standards and conditions of employment that employers must offer to workers; expanding the Department's authority to use enforcement tools, such as program debarment for substantial violations of program requirements; modernizing the process by which the Department receives and processes employers' job orders and applications for temporary agricultural labor certifications, including the recrui…
Other Federal Register documents from the same docket.
Temporary Agricultural Employment of H-2A Nonimmigrants in the United States; Ratification of Department's Actions
Adverse Effect Wage Rate Methodology for the Temporary Employment of H-2A Nonimmigrants in Non-Range Occupations in the United States
Temporary Agricultural Employment of H-2A Nonimmigrants in the United States
Citation: 87 FR 61660
