Temporary suspension of Prevailing wage (ETA 9141)

[Robert Kumar]

All,

I see the below news on immigration-law.com.
I am sure it applies only to H2B agricultural workers, but can you please let me know what do you understand. Do you think it applies to most of us, high-tech workers, in EB2/3 categories,

Thank you,
Bobby.


07/29/2011: Temporary Suspension of OFLC's Prevailing Wage Determination, ETA 9141, Causing Delays in Recruiting for and Filing of PERM Applications

The OFLC's prevailing wage rule has been in a federal court litigation in regards to the wage determination methodology for H-2B cases, followed by the court order to change the methodology of prevailing wage determination with a timeline set by the court. The new methodology was initially published with the effective date of January 1, 2012, which failed to comply with the court order, and the OFLC initiated a new proposed rule on 06/28/2011 to change the effective date to 60 days from the date of publication of the final rule with their anticipation that the final rule will be published on 08/01/2011 so that the new rule can take effect on or about 10/01/2011. Under this schedule, the OFLC is scheduled to publish the final rule next Monday, 08/01/2011, in the federal register. (See advance copy). According to the revised Final rule which will be published on Monday, the final rule will take effect on or about 10/01/2011 instead of 01/01/2012. Pending the foregoing court battle jig jags, the agency's prevailing wage determination has been suspended. It is uncertain whether the determination of prevailing wage, ETA 9141, can be resumed soon or will have to wait until 10/01/2011. The date of reinstatement of the prevailing wage determination remains unclear and up in the air. By next Monday or Tuesday, we will have a better picture on the status of suspension of the prevailing wage determination of the DOL. Please stay tuned to this website.

[charab]

My PWD has been suspended due to above reason. Do you guy's know if anything similar happened in past.

[sganny]

see http://www.ofr.gov/OFRUpload/OFRData/2011-19319_PI.pdf

[sanju_dba]

Processing of Prevailing Wage Determinations Currently Suspended Until Further Notice

says

Prevailing wage determinations must be filed in connection with all labor certification applications (PERM) for permanent resident status and H-2B seasonal temporary workers, and, in a few instances, H-1B specialty occupation petitions

that means all LCA or LC will need to wait !

[sganny]

this seems to be a typical case of the law firms trying to spread rumors. I searched long and hard on the DOL website and the only thing I could find was this link( http://www.ofr.gov/OFRUpload/OFRData/2011-19319_PI.pdf). this link talks specifically about H2B and nothing else.

if someone has found anything else on the DOL website, please post here. the latest link posted by Sanju_dba from Mintz says " Prevailing wage determinations must be filed in connection with all labor certification applications (PERM) for permanent resident status and H-2B seasonal temporary workers, and, in a few instances, H-1B specialty occupation petitions. Delays in processing prevailing wage requests may affect the processing times for these types of cases." with the key word being "may affect" and sanju_dba interprets that as "that means all LCA or LC will need to wait !" which I do not believe is the right interpretion.