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42 April 2015 Landscape and Irrigation www.landscapeirrigation.com Staying Current Senate Democrats recently blocked a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security that contained provisions that would have gutted the Obama administration's directives on immigration. The bill, which needs 60 votes for passage, failed to advance on a 51–48 vote. Will there be any agreement on immigration in the near future? Can the new GOP-led Congress ultimately produce any immigration legislation that doesn't get vetoed by the president? Where does this leave the industries that need legal workforces and new workers as the economy picks up? House Republicans are still stuck on border security as their main emphasis, and are even having trouble getting consensus within their ranks on that. Many conservatives have raised concerns over proposed bills on this issue, both from its effectiveness in a bill and how the Senate may handle it. Like many of our allied industries, we believe the only long-term solution lies with comprehensive immigration reform. Don't look to the H-2B program as a short-term answer to workforce shortages. The viability of the program continues to be challenged on several fronts because of the actions of the Department of Labor (DOL). The biggest hurdle is that companies now must rely on the prevailing wage rates derived from the DOL database, which are often higher that those derived from private wage surveys. In many cases, employers have to pay $3.00 plus per hour more per employee, which amounts to hundreds of thousands of lost profits for many landscape companies. To help answer the private wage survey debate, the National Association of Landscape Professionals (formerly PLANET) and other allied industries funded a new report titled "Employer- Provided Surveys Can Often Provide More Accurate Prevailing Wage Determinations than Occupational Employment Statistics Data," by Stephen G. Bronars, Ph.D., a senior economist in the Washington, D.C. office of Welch Consulting. Following are some of the report's key findings: 1. The Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey is too broad to provide accurate estimates of the average wage in most H-2B jobs. A specialized employer-provided survey of particular jobs in particular areas will generally be more accurate. 2. Because the OES survey attempts to cover so many occupations and areas, every year there are: a. Hundreds of Prevailing Wage Determinations (PWDs) where the state or national average wage is used because there are too few employers in the OES survey in the local labor market area where the PWD applies. b. Over one thousand PWDs where the margin of error for the PWD (average wage) is 10 percent or more. You can contact the National Association of Landscape Professionals at 800-395-2522 for a summary of the report. Another challenge is that the H-2B cap for the first half of the fiscal year was hit on Jan. 26. This means even those employers who are willing to pay much higher wages may not get the workers they need prior to April 1. Without reinstatement of the returning worker exemption, many companies will continue to be unable to secure the number of workers they need. Some landscape companies have turned to the H-2B program in the face of increased e-Verify requirements for employees working on federal and some state contracts, and some are using e-Verify for all new employees. Nevertheless, the existing workers may have challenges if they all have to be e-Verified. Industries and companies that rely on seasonal workers would like to see this immigration problem fixed once and for all. I suspect the majority of the public also would be in favor of more clearly defined immigration policies. Tom Delaney, is director of government affairs at the National Association of Landscape Professionals (formerly PLANET). Where is Immigration Legislation Headed This Year? Is H-2B Still the Best Answer? ILLUSTRATION AbOve ©ISTOckphOTO.cOm/SmARTbOy10 LI ■ by tom Delaney