Employers who rely on low-skilled workers from abroad have a new set of rules to digest. On Feb. 10, the Labor Dept. issued 575 pages of regulations for its H-2B visa program that U.S. employers use to bring foreign nationals to fill temporary non-agricultural jobs. H-2Bs generally allow for a maximum 10-month stay and are often used by small, seasonal businesses such as housing contractors, landscapers, and seafood processors. The application process, which involves filing paperwork with the Labor Dept. and Immigration authorities, has been growing steadily more complicated and time-consuming. Now it’s even tougher.
Among the biggest changes in the new rules, which go into effect on April 23: They’ll have to demonstrate to state agencies—not merely attest—that they weren’t able to locate enough U.S. workers. They’ll have to post the jobs in a national online registry administered by the Labor Dept. and start advertising in local publications about two weeks earlier than in the past. And they’ll also be responsible for employees’ travel costs to and from their home countries, provided the worker completes a certain number of days on the job.
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If they would simply remove the unemployment tax exemption to employers for foreign workers, it would suddenly become easy to hire Americans for these jobs.
ReplyDeleteThis has nothing to do with stupidity. It has to do with Somme select companies making millions in the modern day "slave trade"
As I have written before and will again - we are over-taxed, over-legislated, and over-regulated. Essentially we are strangled.
ReplyDeleteI run a Temp Agency and I know that I can find more than 575 unskilled workers to fill those jobs. People are desperate for work right now. If we hire Americans maybe the economy would get better? We E-verify everyone that we hire, and we can also save some of these companies money in the long run.
ReplyDelete