DOL Loses Bid to Narrow Order Blocking Foreign Farmworker Rule

A district court judge has denied a request by the Biden administration to limit an injunction halting labor organizing protections for foreign farmworkers in 17 states.

That order temporarily blocked enforcement of US Labor Department protections like a ban on coercive captive audience meetings and other safeguards for workers on H-2A visas. The order applied to GOP-led states that joined a Georgia berry farm and an industry association in challenging the DOL regulations.

The agency argued that the injunction should only have applied to workplace organizing safeguards, and not other provisions of the rule such as requirements for seat belts in employer-provided transportation.

Neither party sufficiently argued that relief should be limited to specific provisions of the rule, Wood found in an order Thursday. Although the DOL contended in supplemental briefs that allegedly invalid portions of the rule were severable, it was “was far too little too late to meaningfully guide the Court,” the order said.

“The litigation is not over, and the parties will have ample opportunity to raise any additional arguments as the case proceeds,” Wood wrote. “That is to say: Defendants will have an opportunity to adequately raise the severability issue if and when the Court considers whether to grant a permanent injunction.”

The DOL has said it’s empowered to issue the protections for workers on the temporary agricultural visas under the Immigration and Nationality Act. But the GOP challenge filed in June argues that the agency violated the National Labor Relations Act, which exempted farmworkers from organizing safeguards.

The case is Kansas v. DOL, S.D. Ga., No. 2:24-cv-00076, order issued 8/29/24.