TAG: H-2B

Government Affairs: Congress defers action on H-2B program until after midterm elections

October 2, 2018By

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

U.S. Department of Labor to conduct H-2B education and enforcement initiative in landscaping industry

September 13, 2018By

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

Government Affairs: Will the H-2B returning-worker provision be approved by Congress this fall?

September 4, 2018By

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

Editor’s Note: It’s time

July 3, 2018By

I can vividly recall sitting next to Bob Dolibois, retired executive vice president of the American Nursery & Landscape Association (now AmericanHort), on a bus ride at an industry event in May 2007, days after the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007 was introduced in the Senate. This bill—which was viewed as a compromise between both parties, thanks to its... read more

Government Affairs: The state of immigration, H-2B reform in Congress

July 3, 2018By

  For a moment in mid-June it seemed like the stars might be aligning for getting the returning-worker exemption reinstated in the H-2B visa program. If reinstated, the returning-worker exemption would not count those workers who had been granted visas within the past two seasons against the 66,000 statutory cap. This move would effectively double the number of visas available... read more

DOJ settles with landscape firm for discriminating against American workers

June 27, 2018By

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) reached a settlement agreement with Triple H Services, a landscaping company based in Newland, N.C., that conducts business in Virginia and four other states. The DOJ said Triple H discriminated against qualified and available U.S. workers based on their citizenship status by preferring to hire temporary workers with H-2B visas, in violation of the... read more

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