Department Of Labor Effort To Protect Us, Temporary Workers’ Rights In Midwest Under H-2b Guest Visa Program Continues
The U.S. Department of Labor announced today that its Wage and Hour Division will host an online seminar on April 18 at 1 p.m. EDT on the proper employment of temporary nonimmigrant workers with H-2B guest visas for employers, worker advocates and other stakeholders, as part of an ongoing division initiative to ensure that Midwest employers comply with federal laws governing the program.
The H-2B visa program allows U.S. employers to bring foreign workers to the U.S. for non-agricultural or other work for a one-time occurrence, such labor needed on a seasonal, peak load or intermittent basis.
Since 2018, the division has identified more than $4 million in back wages owed by employers to nearly 2,000 workers and assessed nearly $2.2 million in civil money penalties to resolve pay practice violations. In total, Wage and Hour investigators have conducted 100 H-2B investigations in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio and Wisconsin since 2018.
“Our team in the Midwest has made significant progress in holding violators accountable for violating the rights of thousands of workers in the H-2B program,” said Wage and Hour Division Regional Administrator Michael Lazzeri in Chicago. “This ongoing initiative is designed to make sure employers meet specific requirements that protect the rights of workers – both U.S. workers and those with H-2B visas – to be paid their legal wages and benefits as the law requires, and that employers answer for their violations.”
Since 2018, the division has debarred 12 Midwest employers and contractors for H-2B visa program violations.
Federal investigators find employers in the H-2B program who violate the law commonly:
- Fail to hire or rehire qualified U.S. workers.
- Offer more favorable working conditions, and/or imposed restrictions or obligations on the H-2B workers that they did not offer or apply equally to U.S. workers.
- Make illegal deductions or fail to include all hours worked, which results in the employer’s failure to pay the offered wage for entire period of intended employment.
- Fail to pay for H-2B workers’ inbound and outbound travel expenses, and subsistence.
For more information about the labor provisions of the H-2B program and other laws that the division enforces, contact the toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243).
Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division, the labor provisions of the H-2B program, including a search tool to use if you think you may be owed back wages collected by the division and how to file an online complaint. For confidential compliance assistance, employees and employers can call the agency’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243), regardless of where they are from.
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