#WorkforceWednesday: SCOTUS in Review, Biden Acts to Limit Non-Competes, NY HERO Act Model Safety Plans - Employment Law This Week®
#WorkforceWednesday: Mandatory Vaccination, Tipped Worker Rule, and SCOTUS Rules Against Organized Labor - Employment Law This Week®
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has issued a Final Rule for the H-2A and H-2B temporary worker programs that will become effective on Jan. 17, 2025. The Rule is aimed at modernizing the regulations governing the...more
Immigration policy, in one form or another, touches virtually every business in the United States. All employers are subject to the requirements of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, which established the I-9...more
The Department of Labor (DOL) announced its H-2A Transition Plan for updating its Foreign Labor Application Gateway (FLAG) system based on the preliminary injunction (known as the Kansas Order) issued by the U.S. District...more
The Department of Labor (DOL) has decided to delay updating its Foreign Labor Application Gateway, or FLAG, case processing system to implement revised H-2A job order and application forms for the new 2024 Farmworkers...more
The U.S. Department of Labor just released a final rule that will expand employment protections for farmworkers in the H-2A visa program and enhance the agency’s capabilities to monitor and enforce program compliance. The DOL...more
In early 2020, Alco Harvesting, LLC hired Jesus Guzman, a citizen of Mexico, to perform agricultural work in Santa Maria under the H-2A visa program. The H-2A visa program allows employers to hire foreign nationals to engage...more
Our Agricultural Legislative & Public Policy Team examines another pair of proposed rules that would reform the H-2A program....more
The mere fact that the plaintiff was building livestock enclosures on farms did not necessarily preclude his entitlement to overtime pay under the agricultural exemption of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the Seventh...more
It’s hard to believe, but it is already time to start planning for your labor needs for Spring 2023. As we know, finding, hiring, developing, and retaining adequate labor resources are some of the most vexing challenges for...more
The Department of Labor recently announced a proposal to change the methodology of the hourly Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR) for temporary nonimmigrant agricultural workers in the H-2A Program for all occupations other than...more
What will the Department of Labor’s new proposal changing the methodology used to set the adverse effect wage rate in the H-2A visa program mean to agricultural employers? Members of our Agricultural Legislative & Public...more
This month, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed course and held that the arbitration agreement signed by a H-2A temporary farm worker was valid and enforceable. This decision is instructive for California employers on...more
A west coast federal appeals court just opened the door for H-2A employers to enforce arbitration agreements in employment disputes even outside the context of a collective bargaining agreement. The Ninth Circuit Court of...more
President Biden promised sweeping changes to U.S. immigration law should he be elected president. In accordance with these campaign promises, Democratic lawmakers have just introduced a sweeping immigration bill backed by the...more
It’s hard to keep up with all the recent changes to labor and employment law. While the law always seems to evolve at a rapid pace, there have been an unprecedented number of changes for the past few years—and this past month...more
On Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, easing immigration for agricultural workers....more
The plaintiff, an agricultural laborer, brought suit against his employer who, in turn, moved to compel arbitration based on the arbitration agreement in the parties’ employment contract. The plaintiff opposed, successfully...more
Not shockingly, the White House’s recent insistence on keeping tariffs in place on China (to ensure deal compliance) is proving to be a major stumbling block in negotiations on a grand trade deal between the US and China....more
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Sept. 28, 2017, that the newly formed Immigrant and Employee Rights Section (IER) of the Civil Rights Division filed a lawsuit against an agricultural producer headquartered...more
President-elect Trump’s winery in Charlottesville, Virginia recently filed visa applications with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). The winery said it will need six workers to prune grape vines six days a week , with a pay...more
On August 31, the Ninth Circuit continued its trend of certifying “no injury” classes, this time in the context of an Agricultural Workers’ Protection Act claim that a Washington state fruit and vegetable farm violated the...more