Chairman Miller Urges Secretary Chao Not To Roll Back Worker Protections

By Betsy Miller Kittredge on 10-15-2008, 01:47 PM in

Last week, Chairman George Miller asked Department of Labor Secretary Elaine Chao to withdraw two proposals that would roll back worker protections contained in the nation’s H-2A and H-2B guest worker programs. This is in light of an Office of Inspector General investigation critical of the Department’s oversight of the permanent worker program -- the same oversight system Labor proposes to use in the temporary and seasonal guest worker programs.

Though the Department is required to conduct audits of applications submitted to ensure against fraud, the OIG found that the Department actually discontinued some types of audits nearly three years ago. Additionally, the OIG found that the Department did not even audit many applications which had been selected for either random or targeted audits.

The OIG concluded:
“The effect of [the DOL] not auditing applications selected for audit is that fraudulent or non-meritorious applications may have been certified. Certifying non-eligible foreign workers could negatively affect the U.S. workforce by reducing the amount of jobs available for U.S. workers.”

Chairman Miller's letter to Secretary Chao states:
“The OIG report demonstrates that your Department has failed to properly implement the Program Electronic Review Management (PERM), a program that is similar to one you propose in the H-2A and H-2B regulations. Thus, we worry that the Bush Administration scheme for the H-2A and H-2B programs could lead to more fraudulent or non-meritorious requests for temporary foreign guest workers, at the expense of U.S. workers, with little risk of detection.”

Note: Sensitive information has been redacted from the OIG report.