Last Friday, Dec. 7, funding for several federal agencies was due to run out unless Congress passed a set of appropriations bills, which we hoped would contain reforms to the H-2B guest worker program. Congress defers action Unfortunately, the death of former President George H. W. Bush and his state funeral last week brought official activity in Washington to a... read more
In September, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced a nationwide initiative to strengthen compliance in the landscape industry with the labor provisions of the H-2B temporary visa program. It was almost identical to a release issued the previous week targeting the hospitality industry. The compliance will focus on: Confirming an insufficient number of U.S. employees are qualified and available... read more
With the Nov. 6 midterm elections just days away, what can we expect come Jan. 1 in the new Congress? The consensus of the pollsters and pundits is the U.S. House of Representatives will flip from Republican control to Democratic. At this writing several days out from the midterms, the political website fivethirtyeight.com puts the probability that this flip will... read more
The H-2B returning-worker provision and some modest H-2B reforms did not make it into the fiscal year 2019 federal appropriations bills, as business advocates had hoped. Appropriations bills, except DHS The House and Senate sent several appropriations bills to President Trump’s desk for signature, encompassing most of the federal bureaucracy. However, the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) appropriation, in which... read more
The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division (WHD) is conducting a nationwide initiative to strengthen compliance with the labor provisions of the H-2B temporary visa program in the landscaping industry, in order to ensure compliance with federal wage laws. The initiative will provide compliance assistance tools and information to employers and stakeholders and include conducting investigations of... read more
This summer, the landscape contracting industry has faced what may be the tightest labor market in its history. With the economy running at full tilt, the unemployment rate at near all-time lows and a labor market that eschews working outside in an ever-hotter climate, many landscape contractors are making hard decisions about whether they can even stay in business. Getting... read more
