US seeks tighter rules on foreign farm workers

The Labor Department is trying again to roll back Bush administration regulations that made it easier for farmers to hire temporary foreign farm workers.

 

The agency on Thursday said it is proposing new rules that would boost wages and increase safeguards for thousands of seasonal workers brought in each year to help farmers pick their crops. It would also require that growers make greater efforts to fill those jobs with American workers, according to the Associated Press.

 

"Every worker deserves to be treated and paid fairly," Cal Poly Pomona graduate and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said. "That is especially true of agricultural workers, who often perform backbreaking work for very low wages."

 

If the rules are adopted, they would largely reverse regulations finalized shortly before President George W. Bush left office and return to a framework that had been in effect since 1987.

 

The Labor Department briefly suspended the Bush rules earlier this year, but officials were forced to reinstate them after farm groups successfully challenged the decision in federal court.

 

Solis said the new rules would let the Labor Department take a more active role in protecting farm workers from mistreatment and keeping domestic workers from being unfairly displaced.