New Wage Survey Pt 1
From the Ag Information Network, this is today’s Fruit Grower Report. Another ag worker survey was created in the past legislative session that many feel is unnecessary.
Washington State Tree Fruit Association President, Jon
DeVaney says the passage of House Bill 2226 now requires domestic workers to be surveyed, in theory, to help set the prevailing wage …
DeVANEY … “It was a bill mandating some new data collection around H-2A workers and the way that H-2A workers are surveyed for wage information that we felt was, a lot of it was redundant and some of it was not very rigorous.”
Because, DeVaney says this information is already available …
DeVANEY … “A lot of the information that the bill still would propose requiring the Employment Security Department to collect when they visit H-2A employers each year, around how many workers have arrived, where are they being housed and so on is information that’s available in the initial applications that H-2A employers make to Employment Securities. So, it’s essentially just once again collecting the information that was already submitted at the
start of the process.”
Which, DeVaney says is kind of a waste of time and resources …
DeVANEY … “ESD knows how many domestic workers are referred to those employers and so you’re really collecting a lot of information that is already available through other sources.”
Listen tomorrow for more on the new worker survey and why it doesn’t represent the needs of agriculture.
