Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation recently hosted an Ag Labor Seminar for its members to learn more about the new H-2A labor rule regulations, which governs who can work on farms in Mississippi and how much farmers have to pay those workers.
The seminar included updates on the status of DOL regulations and compliance, OSHA heat and pregnancy regulations and EPA Worker Protection Standards (WPS).
“This is our most concerning issue right now. We’re looking at having to double wages. We’re trying to figure out how to make this work going forward this year,” said Walt King, a Washington County Farm Bureau member.
Although Mississippi farmers are in the middle of harvest, King said attending the seminar was important.
“When you don’t deal with this kind of thing on a daily basis, it get confusing pretty quickly,” King said.
MFBF organized the meeting with labor and legal experts in hopes of clearing things up for this full-house of farmers in attendance.
“Our farmers should not have to hire an attorney to be able to use H-2A labor, but, the fact of the matter is, you almost have to because of how complicated the rules have become,” MFBF President Mike McCormick said.
Phelps Dunbar Law Firm in New Orleans is leading the legal battle with the United States Department of Labor on behalf of farmers nationwide. Because of this, Brandon Davis, a partner at Phelps Dunbar, spoke to the seminar attendees.
“We certainly identify with the frustration of American farmers,” Davis said. “That frustration is not knowing exactly how the government will enforce the new rules and not knowing when or whether the courts may afford relief. Our hope is that the position that we’ve taken out of litigation is acceptable by the courts, and that the courts understand that this is federal regulatory overreach. Whether we can obtain that outcome is yet to be seen.”
Although Davis offered attendees hope for making the H-2A program easier to navigate in the future, their work now still must go on. A multitude of questions on how to do that were asked of all five speakers.
“I asked Mr. McCormick in the hallway earlier, ‘Where’s the Lisinopril?’ because our blood pressure is going to rise dealing with this,” said Austin Smith, a Forrest County Farm Bureau member. “It was certainly good to get some clarity, but I feel like the Department of Labor should have been a little more concrete in their information givena bout the new proposed rule.”
“I definitely think they have to become more effective in telling you what is happening and explaining the rules,” King said. “Some of my biggest questions – when did these rate changes go into effect? Is this year-round? Is it only during when the work is being done? – had to be answered today because the rule is so confusing.”
Pushing forward seems to be the only option for farmers despite their operations and livelihoods hanging in the balance because of a decision being made that is out of their control.
“Some of the old information given was good, but I think moving forward, we just have to know exactly what to do,” Smith said. “They need to remove the gray area. It needs to be black and white. They threw the rule out here, and we don’t understand how to comply.”
“The more information we can give to the farmers on the front end, the better off they are because we don’t have a lot of options to help on the back end,” McCormick said. “That’ll be up to them. Our goal for this meeting was to get information out to these farmers, so they can make the best decisions possible.”