Alien Farm Labor Must Be Paid at Premium Rates, Judge Rules

A federal judge on Wednesday barred the Labor Department from implementing a new wage standard for foreign farm workers under the new immigration law.

District Judge Stanley Sporkin permanently enjoined the Labor Department from setting the so-called “adverse effect wage rate” for foreign farm workers at a level equal to the average hourly farm wage of domestic laborers.

The Labor Department “has failed to demonstrate that the regulations it promulgated do anything to protect the wages and working conditions in the United States, and thus these regulations are contrary to law,” the judge said, ruling on a challenge by the AFL-CIO and Migrant Legal Action Program.

The labor groups argued that the Labor Department’s decision to drop the traditional 20% differential in the wage rate for foreign farm workers would depress the pay of domestic fruit and vegetable pickers.

Under the law, U.S. growers may only obtain Labor Department certification to import foreign farm help if they demonstrate that there are no domestic workers and that the alien workers would not hurt the wages and working conditions of American farm laborers.

The Immigration Reform and Control Act passed last year by Congress gave the Labor Department a statutory authority that the agency had previously exercised under regulations.

“By incorporating the very words of the previous regulatory mandate into the (immigration) statute, Congress implicitly approved the results that mandate had yielded--that is (foreign farm worker pay) 20% above the average (domestic) wage rate,” Sporkin said.

The immigration law “tells the department to find some methodology which will continue to produce an enhanced wage rate and continue to protect American workers,” Sporkin said.

He gave the Labor Department 30 days to establish a new interim adverse effect wage rate.