Hiring rules for farms challenged

WASHINGTON — 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 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 also would require that growers make greater efforts to fill those jobs with American workers.

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

Labor and immigrant rights groups claim the Bush regulations would slash farm wages and make it harder for domestic workers to get those jobs.

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

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

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.

Farm growers say the changes to the H-2A guest worker program will make it more cumbersome and expensive for them to hire foreign workers for tough field jobs that most Americans don’t want.