|
|
|
NEWS HEADLINES
Seasonal Employers Out of Luck without Congressional Action
Sherryl S. Pond, Esq.
SEASONAL EMPLOYERS OUT OF LUCK
As has been widely publicized over the past [few] weeks, the “cap” for visas has been reached for seasonal workers for fiscal year 2005. This means that unless applications had already been approved at the state and regional departments of labor and filed with the Immigration Service on or before January 3, 2005, then the applications would not be accepted for filing with the Service at all. Bottom line for Newport: many seasonal workers who come to work in the hospitality industry every year, usually in the larger hotels and restaurants, will not be able to return this summer.
The inability of local employers to hire additional seasonal workers to augment the work force puts our economy in jeopardy. Through the labor certification process, employers must demonstrate that no U.S. workers are available for the jobs. It is not a matter of taking jobs away from Americans. Newport is dependent upon these workers, and the local economy stands to lose a season of tourism income if hotel rooms cannot be booked and meals cannot be served because of a shortage of service staff, which has been filled in the past by foreign workers on H-2B visas.
As an example of other types of businesses affected by the shortage of available visa numbers, our firm has a client in the sailing industry who is under contract to restore an antique wooden boat. In order to do this, he is seeking to use workers from New Zealand who are experienced in using an English wheeling machine and who will bring the machine with them. Because the case is languishing in the California State Department of Labor, which it has been doing for months, the case has not been filed with the Immigration Service. The employer now faces not being able to have the workers until the new fiscal year begins, which is October 1, 2005. The contract will be delayed or even lost, costing him and his client substantial revenue.
The numerical cap for H-2B workers is 66,000 for the entire country. Last year the cap was reached on March 10, 2004, and this year it was reached even earlier, on January 3, 2005. Sherryl S. Pond, a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, is urging Congress and the Administration to resolve this crisis by increasing the numerical cap. Unless action is taken soon, American companies and the economy of our local community, as well as those nationwide that depend on these workers, will dramatically suffer.
|
|
|
|
|
