The Temporary Non-agricultural Employment 2011 H-2B Wage Rule for calculating the prevailing wage rates (“Rule”) has cleared one of the last hurdles to implementation by the U.S. Department of Labor, with a ruling by a federal appeals court in Philadelphia upholding the regulation.  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held on February

In a significant decision likely to have a major impact on H-2B employers, the Department of Labor’s (DOL) Board of Alien Labor Certification (BALCA) has rejected the DOL’s attempt to apply supplemental prevailing wage determinations (PWDs) retroactively upon employers who use H-2B temporary foreign labor.  The action came in an Appeals Board Decision rendered on

In a departure from prior interpretations of H-1B sponsorship, a New York state court ruled an H-1B work visa application established an employment contract sufficient to support the employee’s breach of contract claim. Kausal v. Educational Products Information Exchange Institute, d/b/a EPIE Institute, 2013 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 2491 (NY Apr. 17, 2013).

Nikhil Kausal

The DOL Administrative Review Board has decided that employers are responsible for paying wages to H-1B foreign nationals who—but for a delay in the Social Security Account enumeration and card issuance process—would be actively employed. The same rule likely will be applied to other nonimmigrant workers who experience delays in Social Security number processing.

The