Court denies request to halt enforcement of rule changing AEWR calculation

A judge has denied a request for a preliminary injunction to halt the enforcement of a U.S. Department of Labor rule updating how Adverse Effect Wage Rates (AEWR) are calculated for non-range H-2A occupations.

The U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of California released an order (.pdf) on May 14 found that plaintiffs failed to demonstrate irreparable harm. The DOL’s interim final rule stays in effect as a result of the ruling.

Last November, United Farm Workers, the UFW Foundation and 18 farmworkers filed a lawsuit to reverse the interim final rule changing AEWR calculations for the H-2A guest worker program. Other industry groups greeted the changes with applause and optimism, with members of the Ag Wage Reform Coalition pushing to make the changes permanent.

Western Growers and the National Council of Agricultural Employers (NCAE) were among groups which filed an amicus brief supporting DOL’s position.

“We applaud the court’s decision to deny the UFW’s request for preliminary injunction on the Department’s AEWR Interim Final Rule,” NCAE president and CEO John Hollay said in a statement. “For too long, employers have been forced to pay wages that were detached from economic reality and put American agriculture at strategic disadvantage on the international market.”