U.S. Alert – DOL OIG Finds ETA’s Lack Of Key Controls Over H-2B Process Jeopardizes Businesses
The Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General (OIG)
recently found that the Employment and Training
Administration’s (ETA) lack of controls over the H-2B
applications process has jeopardized businesses that depend on H-2B
workers. The OIG investigated this issue after members of Congress
expressed concerns over reported delays in the H-2B application
process, which allows U.S. employers to hire temporary nonimmigrant
workers for nonagricultural labor and services. H-2B application
processing delays “could prevent employers from obtaining
foreign workers by their date of need” or “obtain[ing]
U.S. workers to fill those positions,” the OIG said.
The OIG noted that ETA did not evaluate the impact of its
overall H-2B process on two other agencies (the Departments of
Homeland Security and State) that are part of the overall process,
hold staff accountable for meeting internal application processing
goals, or manage resources appropriately, potentially affecting
jobs in numerous industries, such as shrimp and crab, landscaping,
housekeeping, construction, amusement parks, forestry, and meat and
poultry. The OIG review found ETA’s mean time to process
applications at prevailing wage was 5 days more than the internal
goal, and at the processing center it was 41 days over the internal
goal. “These delays, particularly in seasonal industries,
would have serious adverse effects on business owners and local
economies,” the OIG said. As a result, ETA could not
demonstrate whether it ensured that employers’ needs for
temporary foreign labor were being met.
The delays potentially affected up to 148,000 positions and
could have had adverse effects on business owners who rely on this
labor, whether a foreign laborer or U.S. worker would fill the
position, the OIG said. For fiscal year (FY) 2016, for example, the
OIG identified about 100,000 positions potentially affected that
were not processed timely. In addition, for FY 2017, the OIG found
that about 48,000 positions were affected because ETA did not
timely review 36 percent of the applications (133,985 positions
total certified).
The OIG recommended that the Deputy Assistant Secretary for ETA
develop policy to ensure that H-2B applications are processed
timely, develop a method for tracking and reporting on processing
timeliness for H-2B applications, and develop a staffing plan to
address peak seasons for receipt of H-2B applications. The OIG
noted that the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Employment
and Training stated that the agency has taken actions to address
these recommendations. The OIG noted that “ETA disagreed with
some of our conclusions; however, nothing in their response changed
our report.”
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