5696 Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 24 / Friday, February 4, 2000 / Notices

DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Employment and Training

Administration

Labor Certification Process for the

Temporary Employment of Aliens in

Agriculture and Logging in the United

States: 2000 Adverse Effect Wage

Rates, Allowable Charges for

Agricultural and Logging Workers’

Meals, and Maximum Travel

Subsistence Reimbursement

AGENCY: U.S. Employment Service,

Employment and Training

Administration, Labor.

ACTION: Notice of adverse effect wage

rates (AEWRs), allowable charges for

meals, and maximum travel subsistence

reimbursement for 2000.

SUMMARY: The Administrator, Office of

Workforce Security, announces 2000

adverse effect wage rate (AEWRs) for

employers seeking nonimmigrant alien

(H–2A) workers for temporary or

seasonal agricultural labor or services,

the allowable charges employers seeking

nonimmigrant alien workers for

temporary or seasonal agricultural labor

or services or logging work may levy

upon their workers when they provide

three meals per day, and the maximum

travel subsistence reimbursement which

a worker with receipts may claim in

2000.

AEWRs are the minimum wage rates

which the Department of Labor has

determined must be offered and paid to

U.S. and alien workers by employers of

nonimmigrant alien agricultural workers

(H–2A visaholders). AEWRs are

established to prevent the employment

of these aliens from adversely affecting

wages of similarly employed U.S.

workers.

The Administrator also announces the

new rates which covered agricultural

and logging employers may charge their

workers for three daily meals.

Under specified conditions, workers

are entitled to reimbursement for travel

subsistence expense. The minimum

reimbursement is the charge for three

daily meals as discussed above. The

Administrator here announces the

current maximum reimbursement for

works with receipts.

EFFECTIVE DATE: February 4, 2000.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms.

Grace A. Kilbane, Administrator, Office

of Workforce Security, U.S. Department

of Labor, Room S–4231, 200

Constitution Avenue, N.W.,

Washington, D.C. 20210. Telephone:

202–219–7831 (this is not a toll-free

number).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The

Attorney General may not approve an

employer’s petition for admission of

temporary alien agricultural (H–2A)

workers to perform agricultural labor or

services of a temporary or seasonal

nature in the United States unless the

petitioner has applied to the Department

of Labor (DOL) for an H–2A labor

certification. The labor certification

must show that: (1) There are not

sufficient U.S. workers who are able,

willing, and qualified and who will be

available at the time and place needed

to perform the labor or services involved

in the petition; and (2) the employment

of the alien in such labor or services

will not adversely affect the wages and

working conditions of workers in the

United States similarly employed. 8

U.S.C. 1101(a)(15)(H)(ii)(a), 1184(c), and

1188.

DOL’s regulations for the H–2A

program require that covered employers

offer and pay their U.S. and H–2A

workers no less than the applicable

hourly adverse effect wage rate (AEWR).

20 CFR 655.102(b)(9); see also 20 CFR

655.107. Reference should be made to

the preamble to the July 5, 1989, final

rule (54 FR 28037), which explains in

great depth the purpose and history of

AEWRs, DOL’s discretion in setting

AEWRs and the AEWR computation

methodology at 20 CFR 655.107(a). See

also 52 FR 20496, 20502–20505 (June 1,

1987).

A. Adverse Effect Wage Rates (AEWRs)

for 2000

Adverse effect wage rates (AEWRs)

are the minimum wage rates which DOL

has determined must be offered and

paid to U.S. and alien workers by

employers of nonimmigrant (H–2A)

agricultural workers. DOL emphasizes,

however, that such employers must pay

the highest of the AEWR, the applicable

prevailing wage or the statutory

minimum wage, as specified in the

regulations. 20 CFR 655.102(b)(9).

Except as otherwise provided in 20 CFR

Part 655, Subpart B, the regionwide

AEWR for all agricultural employment

(except those occupations deemed

inappropriate under the special

circumstances provisions of 20 CFR

655.93) for which temporary alien

agricultural labor (H–2A) certification is

being sought, is equal to the annual

weighted average hourly wage rate for

field and livestock workers (combined)

for the region as published annually by

the U.S. Department of Agriculture

(USDA does not provide data on

Alaska). 20 CFR 655.107(a).

The regulation at 20 CFR 655.107(a)

requires the Administrator, Office of

Workforce Security, to publish USDA

field and livestock worker (combined)

wage data as AEWRs in a Federal

Register notice. Accordingly, the 2000

AEWRs for work performed on or after

the effective date of this notice, are set

forth in the table below:

TABLE.—2000 ADVERSE EFFECT

WAGE RATES (AEWRS)

State 2000

AEWR

Alabama ........................................ $6.72

Arizona .......................................... 6.74

Arkansas ....................................... 6.50

California ....................................... 7.27

Colorado ....................................... 7.04

Connecticut ................................... 7.68

Delaware ....................................... 7.04

Florida ........................................... 7.25

Georgia ......................................... 6.72

Hawaii ........................................... 9.38

Idaho ............................................. 6.79

Illinois ............................................ 7.62

Indiana .......................................... 7.62

Iowa .............................................. 7.76

Kansas .......................................... 7.49

Kentucky ....................................... 6.39

Louisiana ...................................... 6.50

Maine ............................................ 7.68

Maryland ....................................... 7.04

Massachusetts .............................. 7.68

Michigan ....................................... 7.65

Minnesota ..................................... 7.65

Mississippi .................................... 6.50

Missouri ........................................ 7.76

Montana ........................................ 6.79

Nebraska ...................................... 7.49

Nevada ......................................... 7.04

New Hampshire ............................ 7.68

New Jersey ................................... 7.04

New Mexico .................................. 6.74

New York ...................................... 7.68

North Carolina .............................. 6.98

North Dakota ................................ 7.49

Ohio .............................................. 7.62

Oklahoma ..................................... 6.49

Oregon .......................................... 7.64

Pennsylvania ................................ 7.04

Rhode Island ................................ 7.68

South Carolina .............................. 6.72

South Dakota ................................ 7.49

Tennessee .................................... 6.39

Texas ............................................ 6.49

Utah .............................................. 7.04

Vermont ........................................ 7.68

Virginia .......................................... 6.98

Washington ................................... 7.64

West Virginia ................................ 6.39

Wisconsin ..................................... 7.65

Wyoming ....................................... 6.79

B. Allowable Meal Charges

Among the minimum benefits and

working conditions which DOL requires

employers to offer their alien and U.S.

workers in their applications for

temporary logging and H–2A

agricultural labor certification is the

provision of three meals per day or free

and convenient cooking and kitchen

facilities. 20 CFR 655.102(b)(4) and

Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 24 / Friday, February 4, 2000 / Notices 5697

655.202(b)(4). Where the employer

provides meals, the job offer must state

the charge, if any, to the worker for

meals.

DOL has published at 20 CFR

655.102(b)(4) and 655.111(a) the

methodology for determining the

maximum amounts covered H–2A

agricultural employers may charge their

U.S. and foreign workers for meals. The

same methodology is applied at 20 CFR

655.202(b)(4) and 655.211(a) to covered

H–2 logging employers. These rules

provide for annual adjustments of the

previous year’s allowable charges based

upon Consumer Price Index (CPI) data.

Each year the maximum charges

allowed by 20 CFR 655.102(b)(4) and

655.202(b)(4) are changed by the same

percentage as the twelve-month percent

change in the CPI for all Urban

Consumers for Food (CPI–U for Food)

between December of the year just past

and December of the year prior to that.

Those regulations and 20 CFR

655.111(a) and 655.211(a) provide that

the appropriate Regional Administrator

(RA), Employment and Training

Administration, may permit an

employer to charge workers no more

than a higher maximum amount for

providing them with three meals a day,

if justified and sufficiently documented.

Each year, the higher maximum

amounts permitted by 20 CFR

655.111(a) and 655.211(a) are changed

by the same percentage as the twelvemonth percent change in the CPU–U for

Food between December of the year just

past and December of the year prior to

that. The regulations require the

Administrator, Office of Workforce

Security, to make the annual

adjustments and to cause a notice to be

published in the Federal Register each

calendar year, announcing annual

adjustments in allowable charges that

may be made by covered agricultural

and logging employers for providing

three meals daily to their U.S. and alien

workers. The 1999 rates were published

in a notice on February 10, 1999 at 64

FR 6689.

DOL has determined the percentage

change between December of 1998 and

December of 1999 for the CPI–U for

Food was 2.1 percent.

Accordingly, the maximum allowable

charges under 20 CFR 655.102(b)(4),

655.202(b)(4), 655.111, and 655.211

were adjusted using this percentage

change, and the new permissible

charges for 2000 are as follows: (1) For

20 CFR 655.102(b)(4) and 655.202(b)(4),

the charge, if any, shall be no more than

$8.00 per day, unless the RA has

approved a higher charge pursuant to 20

CFR 655.111 or 655.211(b); for 20 CFR

655.111 and 655.211, the RA may

permit an employer to charge workers

up to $9.90 per day for providing them

with three meals per day, if the

employer justifies the charge and

submits to the RA the documentation

required to support the higher charge.

C. Maximum Travel Subsistence

Expense

The regulations at 20 CFR

655.102(b)(5) establish that the

minimum daily subsistence expense

related to travel expenses, for which a

worker is entitled to reimbursement, is

the employer’s daily charge for three

meals or, if the employer makes no

charge, the amount permitted under 20

CFR 655.104(b)(4). The regulation is

silent about the maximum amount to

which a qualifying worker is entitled.

The Department, in Field

Memorandum 42–94, established that

the maximum is the meals component

of the standard CONUS (continental

United States) per diem rate established

by the General Services Administration

(GSA) and published at 41 CFR Ch. 301.

The CONUS meal component is now

$30.00 per day.

Workers who qualify for travel

reimbursement are entitled to

reimbursement up to the CONUS meal

rate for related subsistence when they

provide receipts. In determining the

appropriate amount of subsistence

reimbursement, the employer may use

the GSA system under which a traveler

qualifies for meal expense

reimbursement per quarter of a day.

Thus, a worker whose travel occurred

during two quarters of a day is entitled,

with receipts, to a maximum

reimbursement of $15.00. If a worker

has no receipts, the employer is not

obligated to reimburse above the

minimum stated at 20 CFR 655.102(b)(4)

as specified above.

Signed at Washington, DC, this 31st day of

January, 2000.

Grace A. Kilbane,

Administrator, Office of Workforce Security.

Timothy F. Sullivan

Chief, U.S. Employment Service/ALMIS.

[FR Doc. 00–2547 Filed 2–3–00; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4510–30–M

DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Employment and Training

Administration

[NAFTA–03188]

Philips Electronics North America

Corporation Philips Components

Division Departments 133, 134, 136,

400, 630, 420, 240, 261, 266 and 430

Saugerties, New York; Amended

Certification Regarding Eligibility To

Apply for NAFTA-Transitional

Adjustment Assistance

In accordance with Section 250(A),

Subchapter D, Chapter 2, Title II, of the

Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2273), the

Department of Labor issued a

Certification for NAFTA Transitional

Adjustment Assistance on June 25,

1999, applicable to workers of Philips

Electronics North America Corporation,

Philips Components Division,

Departments 133, 134, 136, 400, 630,

420, 240, 261 and 266, Saugerties, New

York. The notice was published in the

Federal Register on July 20, 1999 (64 FR

38922).

At the request of the State agency, the

Department reviewed the certification

for workers of the subject firm. New

information shows that worker

separations occurred at Philips

Components Division, Department 430

of Philips Electronics North America

Corporation, Saugerties, New York. The

workers are engaged in the production

of soft ferrites (‘‘back end’’—i.e.

grinding, toroids and inspect and pack,

and related support departments).

The intent of the Department’s

certification is to include all workers of

Philips Electronics North America

Corporation, Philips Components

Division who were adversely affected by

the shift in production to Mexico.

Accordingly, the Department is

amending the certification to cover the

workers of Philips Electronics North

America Corporation, Philips

Components Division, Department 430,

Saugerties, New York.

The amended notice applicable to

NAFTA–03188 is hereby issued as

follows:

All workers of Philips Electronics North

America Corporation, Philips Components

Division, Departments 133, 134, 136, 400,

630, 420, 240, 261, 266 and 430, Saugerties,

New York who became totally or partially

separated from employment on or after May

19, 1998 through June 25, 2001 are eligible

to apply for NAFTA–TAA under Section 250

of the Trade Act of 1974.