U.S. Labor Dept. Adopts Rule to Improve Conditions for Immigrant Farmworkers

 The rule requires that housing for workers in the H-2A visa program meet federal standards when state or local regulations are less comprehensive and says employers must provide workers with meals that meet nutritional standards in a timely and sanitary manner.

Agricultural businesses in the U.S. have come to rely increasingly on temporary immigrant workers to perform seasonal work. DOL issued more than 250,000 H-2A visas in fiscal year 2021, up from fewer than 60,000 a decade earlier, and roughly 10% of agricultural jobs are held by H-2A recipients.

DOL also updated the process for employers to apply for the H-2A program, including by making electronic filing mandatory, and changed the way it calculates bonds businesses must pay to ensure that they comply with H-2A regulations and that workers are paid properly.

The department proposed a version of the rule in 2019, during the Trump administration, but the final rule includes more changes to regulations involving workers' living conditions. Advocacy groups have said that housing for H-2A workers is routinely crowded and unsanitary and that many employers overcharge farmworkers for housing, food and other necessities.

The rule will be formally published on Oct. 12 and will take effect next month.

Labor Secretary Marty Walsh in a statement said the changes will enhance the integrity of the H-2A program and provide greater clarity to employers.

“By improving H-2A program regulations, we are strengthening worker protections, meeting our core mission,” Walsh said.

A separate proposal unveiled by DOL last December would change the way that prevailing wages that must be paid to H-2A workers are calculated, by basing them on wages paid to workers in individual occupations rather than entire geographic areas.

Trade groups have said the proposal, which could be finalized before the end of the year, would make the H-2A program too costly for many smaller agricultural businesses that rely on temporary immigrant labor.