Termination of Workers In the H2A Program

Farmers are eternal optimists, how else could you take the risks of putting out another crop and battling the challenges that weather, pests, markets, and labor will inevitably throw your way? The beginning of any employment is filled with hopes for building good relationships and many days of strong performance. Unfortunately, things don’t always play out that way. Employers using the H2A Program (Temporary Agricultural Guest Workers) must plan ahead to create clear guidelines about how termination of workers will be handled.

The New York State Department of Labor’s (NYSDOL) Division of Immigration Policies and Affairs (DIPA) recently released a new guide for employers called the “H2A Termination Tool.” This tool is designed to help growers comply with federal and state regulations that govern the termination of workers under an H-2A contract. You should also refer to the extremely important job description and requirements section of U.S. Department of Labor’s ETA Form 790, which is the key H-2A application document that you completed to get H-2A workers.

Growers should pay a lot of attention to job description and requirements, in USDOL’s ETA Form 790. This job description should be very detailed, listing all of the tasks that H2A workers will be asked to perform, and any relevant standards for performance. H2A workers can be terminated for a number of reasons, including: refusal to perform work, serious misconduct, performance not meeting standards, or job abandonment. More details can be found in DIPA’s H2A Termination Tool, including required notification of USCIS and the Chicago National Processing Center and New York’s termination letter requirement.

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By Richard Stup, Cornell University. Permission granted to repost, quote, and reprint with author attribution.
The post Termination of Workers In the H2A Program appeared first on Cornell Agricultural Workforce Development.

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