Dive Brief:

• The U.S. Departments of Labor and Homeland Security announced rules meant to reinstate the H-2B temporary foreign worker program, make improvements to it, and establish a prevailing wage methodology for its use.
• The rules rework the H-2B labor certification process, impose new recruitment requirements on employers, strengthen protections for workers, increase transparency, and limit the sources for determining prevailing wages.
• The interim final rule is virtually identical to a 2012 final rule that the DOL developed but never implemented due to litigation.

Dive Insight:

According SHRM, the DOL and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the interim final rule contains "a number of improvements" in the labor certification process, including: increased opportunities for U.S. workers to become aware of available jobs; use of a certification-based model that had been used prior to the 2008 final rule rather than relying on employer attestations; the creation of an employer registration process; and additional worker protections such as increasing the number of hours per week required for full-time employment and requiring that U.S. workers in corresponding employment receive the same wages and benefits as H-2B workers.

The interim final rule is effective immediately, although labor certification applications submitted before its release will be processed under the old rules. Employers with a start date prior to Oct. 1, 2015, also will be permitted to use the interim rule’s emergency processing provisions, which cut down on processing times.