The US Departments of Labor and Homeland Security announces proposed changes to existing H-2A program

Here are some of the details of their announcement, please see SLO Farm Bureau's Media Release (.pdf) for an overall reaction to the announcement:
 
By way of context, the current H-2A program has not been widely used in California for a number of reasons: housing requirements, high incidence of litigation, burdensome paperwork and attestation requirements by the Department of Labor to show that there are no local workers available, the need for greater streamlining to ensure that workers are available in a timely manner, the current inability of H-2A workers to move from crop-to -crop and employer- to-employer. 

Proposed changes address the problem areas, though not completely. There are limits to what can be done administratively without actual legislative changes.  California Farm Bureau will continue to push for AgJobs legislation, both as a means of dealing with the overriding need for legalization of the current workforce and as a way to make meaningful H-2A changes into the law itself. 
 
The announced H-2A changes will be open to public comment and likely won’t be finalized until the end of the year.
 
Here are some highlights of the announcement:

1. DOL will move the application process to an attestation-based labor certification process to deal with the current cumbersome process.  (Attestation is the method in which employers certify that there are no local workers available.)  DOL claims the new approach will vastly speed-up the application process and relieve some of the duplicative and burdensome requirements.

2. With regard to housing inspections by state agencies, the application process will no longer be held-up waiting for approval of the housing inspection.

3. The new regulations would change how the H-2A wage rate is determined to reflect more local wage conditions (under existing H-2A programs each state is given an adverse effect wage rate, which then becomes the minimum wage rate that contracted H-2A can be paid).  This appears to be an attempt to make the wage rate conform more closely to actual prevailing wage rates, but it could become a contentious issue among labor interests and even employers.  Currently, the CA adverse effect wage rate runs about $1-1.50 above existing prevailing wages, further discouraging the use of the H-2A program in CA.

4. There will be greater clarification of who pays what in the application process (employer versus the foreign employee applicant) and a resulting increase in the application/processing fee, raising it from $100 per contracted worker to $200 (which will be paid by the employer).  The employee will pay separate in-country fees.

5. Some new worker protection measures will be added, including posting of bonds by the farm labor recruiters and increased penalties for wrongful actions.

6. Logging and Christmas tree operations will be fully included in the H-2A category.

7. The regulations will make changes in the way in which H-2A employees can move from one employer as an improvement over current methods.

8. The timelines for how long H-2A applicants can remain in the country and how long they must subsequently stay in their home countries will be changed and improved.
   

Note:  These are the major highlights, but the 200-page document contains other changes that will require further review.  California Farm Bureau will review the proposals thoroughly and submit written comments to the agencies.